The Rising Costs Of Data Breaches

Have you ever wondered how much a single lost, stolen, or compromised customer record costs your company? According to a recent study, exactly $197. That's up 15 bucks from 2006 when an incident of data loss cost your org $182.

For three years now, privacy research firm the Ponemon Institute has conducted its "U.S. Cost Of A Data Breach" survey. In the past, the jump in cost per record lost has been more substantial (between '05 and '06 it bumped nearly 40%), but any increase should be looked upon with outrage (by the victims of the data loss) and embarrassment (by the IT professionals not putting enough effort into prevention).

We can all agree that, barring some supersoftware, no organization will be 100% secure. And hackers are a diligent lot -- they're working tirelessly to overcome every blockade put in front of them. Bottom line, the cost of a single data record stolen is probably going to continue to rise. That doesn't mean we can't utilize whatever means we have to prevent it from jumping another 15, 20, or even 30 bucks next year. Commit yourself to keeping that denomination down in the single digits next year!