Data breaches have cost organisations in India ₹14 crore on an average in 2020, according to an IBM report.

The average of data breaches increased by 9.4 per cent from 2019, according to the report.

The cost per stolen record for organisations was ₹5,522 according to the 2020 study, an increase of 10 per cent from 2019.

Globally, the cost per data breach was $3.86 million on average.

Globally, compromised employeee accounts were the most expensive root cause. In India, the top 3 root causes of data breaches were malicious attacks, system glitch and human error.

About 53 per cent of data breaches in organisations were caused by malicious attacks, according to the report.

A major addition to the problem of cybersecurity, the response time of organisations in terms of identifying data breaches has increased.

“The average time to identify a data breach increased from 221 to 230 days. The average time to contain a data breach increased from 77 to 83 days,” the report said.

According to Prashant Bhatkal, Security Software Leader, IBM India/South Asia, the changing face of the cyberthreat landscape in India is making organisations more privy to cyberthreats.

Bhatkal said: “India is witnessing a change in the nature of cybercrimes, it is now extremely organised and collaborative with rising incidents of phishing attacks, social engineering attacks, etc. The hybrid-work environment has further brought about a dynamic change in the way organisations look at their security posture.”

“Risks that we’ve been talking about for years, like password reuse, not patching, and improperly configured cloud infrastructure are major cost exacerbators in a breach. Not only are they the most common ways attackers are creeping into companies, but they are also the most financially damaging,” he added.

Divide in breach costs

Globally, one of the major issues in terms of cybersecurity is the growing divide in breach costs between businesses implementing advanced security technologies and those lagging behind. According to the report, the cost gap between these businesses has increased by $2 million, from a difference of $1.55 million in 2018.

Organisations should invest further to bring in new systems and introduce new technologies such as AI in their cybersecurity landscape.

“As organisations look to expand their digital footprint, technologies like automation, AI, and cloud can help address skills gaps, support the security team to focus on larger issues. These technologies can enable a faster breach response and be more cost-efficient in the long run,” Bhatkal said.

The report is based on in-depth analysis of data breaches experienced by over 500 organisations worldwide. 80 per cent of these incidents had resulted in the exposure of customers’ personally identifiable information which was also the costliest to businesses.

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