Data breaches cost companies in India about ₹165 million on an average, according to a new report by IBM Security and Ponemon Institute. This is an increase of 17.85% from ₹140 million in the last report released in 2020.
The global ‘Cost of a Data Breach Report’, which surveyed more than 500 companies worldwide between May 2020 and March 2021, found that data breaches cost surveyed companies $4.24 million per incident on average – the highest cost in the 17-year history of the report.
“The rapid shift to remote work witnessed a tremendous disruption of security programs. Organisations were focussed on getting online and security became an afterthought. India witnessed a record high in data breach during the pandemic, leading to many organisations evaluating their security posture,” said Prashant Bhatkal, Security Software Sales Leader, IBM Technology Sales, India/South Asia.
Mr. Bhatkal added that it was evident that with modernisation, including the adoption of AI, security analytics, and applying a zero trust approach, came significantly decreased costs associated with data breaches. “What’s important is to learn and apply measures that saved organisations the most money when a breach occurred –including applying zero trust, automation, hybrid cloud, and encryption,” he said.
According to the 2021 report data shared by the company, in India the cost per lost or stolen record stood at ₹5,900, an increase of 6.85% from 2020.