Data breach costs continue to soar

Propelled by rising amounts of data, business process digitization and regulatory fines, organizations’ data breach costs are expected to soar from $3 trillion annually to more than $5 trillion by 2024, according to a recent report from Juniper Research.

Interestingly, the report, The Future of Cybercrime and Security: Threat Analysis, Impact Assessment and Migration Strategies 2019-2024, found that the amount of data disclosed in breaches doesn’t correlate directly to the cost of the breach.

This makes sense to me. Indeed, not all data breaches have the same impact on those affected. For instance, a data breach of credit cards can undoubtedly hit astronomically high numbers, but it’s a low cost to the consumer. It’s now relatively straightforward for credit card providers to mitigate fraudulent transactions through deactivating the cards or through behavioral monitoring. Other types of data breaches, however, can’t be so easily mitigated. This can include the exposure of medical history and diagnoses or the breach of personnel files. Once such information is available on the Internet, the damage can’t be undone.

The report authors concluded that cybercriminals will turn to artificial intelligence as a way to learn and bypass security defenses, as well as the creation of deepfakes to be used as part of criminal activity.

Researchers also concluded that security awareness training will become an increasingly important part of enterprise cybersecurity. “The gains that can be made by increasing human awareness of cybersecurity can make more efficient use of cybersecurity spending, which Juniper Research expects to rise by only 8% per annum in the forecast period,” the firm said in this statement.

Sponsorships Available

Sponsorships Available

Sponsorships Available

Of course, it takes much more than security awareness to effectively deal with data breaches and reduce costs. Another recent report, this one  from the SANS Institute, found that organizations have a number of things under their control that can reduce the costs associated with data breaches.

According to that report, enterprises with a data breach plan and resources at the ready to respond can reduce the costs of any breach they endure. One of the most important findings in the SANS report has to do with understanding where their valuable data resides and where it travels. That report found that an effective response plan that includes management and staff is critical to keeping breach costs low.