The Ponemon Institute released its 2015 Cost of Data Breach Study, finding that the cost of a data breach reached a new record high in the United States during the past year.
This is the 10th annual Cost of Data Breach Study conducted by the Ponemon Institute.
This year’s study examined the costs incurred by 62 U.S. companies, in 16 industry sectors, after those companies experienced a data breach. The study excluded data breaches involving more than 100,000 records.
The study found that $6.5 million was the average total cost of a data breach. This represents an 11% increase from 2014 in the average total cost. The study also found that $217 is the average cost per stolen record, which is up 8% from 2014, and represents an all-time high.
Additionally, the study identified the following factors that decreased the cost of a data breach:
- Incident response team and plan in place
- Extensive use of encryption
- Business Continuity Management involvement
- Chief Information Security Officer leadership
- Employee training
- Board-level involvement
- Insurance Protection
A full copy of the study, along with the Global Report and reports for other countries, can be found here.
