Ways to Help Mitigate Risk

The average cost of a data breach reached an all-time high of $4.35 million this year, according to the newly published 2022 Cost of a Data Breach Report, an increase of 2.6% from a year ago and 12.7% since 2020.

New research in this year’s report also reveals for the first time that 83% of organizations in the study have experienced more than one data breach and just 17% said this was their first data breach. And at a time when inflation is growing, breached businesses have passed higher costs to customers, with 60% of organizations in the study reporting that they increased the price of goods and services in response to losses from the breach.

Other key findings are compromised credentials, phishing, and cloud misconfiguration were the top attack vectors and the share of organizations deploying zero trust grew from 35% in 2021 to 41% in 2022. Organizations that don't deploy zero trust incurred an average USD 1 million greater breach costs compared to those with zero trust deployed.

These are among the dozens of findings from the study of 550 organizations across a variety of industries and geographies that experienced a data breach between March 2021 and March 2022.

Now in its 17th year, with research independently conducted by Ponemon Institute, and featuring analysis by IBM Security, the Cost of a Data Breach Report is among the leading benchmark reports in the security industry. It offers IT, security and business leaders a lens into risk factors that can increase the costs associated with a data breach, and which security practices and technologies can help mitigate security risk and financial damages.

Register to download a PDF of the complete report.

Register for a webinar with IBM Security experts discussing key findings and best practices.

For any questions or requests contact your IBM Representative today.