IBM Security's annual Cost of a Data Breach Report has revealed that the global average cost of a data breach has hit an all-time high of $4.88 million in 2024, a 10% increase over last year. This year's report includes a focus on the emergence of unmanaged data sources, referred to as shadow data, along with the extent and costs of disruption caused by data breaches. The report indicates organisations are still passing the cost of data breaches on to customers, which it highlights can be problematic in a competitive market, particularly in light of the challenges caused by inflation.
In more positive news, the report found that AI investments for security and automation are paying dividends with average breach cost being lowered by $2.2 million.
Skills gaps and staffing shortages remain a considerable challenge, increasing 26.2% over the previous year. Over half the breached organisations experienced severe security resource issues. The report indicates skills shortages are expected to grow further, particularly as the race to adopt AI technologies introduces additional risk to the business, placing even greater pressure on under-resourced cybersecurity teams.
This year's study, the 19th in the series, involved 3,556 security and C-suite business leaders from 604 organisations across 17 industries in 16 countries that experienced data breaches ranging in size from 2,100 to 113,000 compromised records.
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