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Healthcare remained the most expensive industry for responding to and recovering from data breaches, according to IBM’s and the Ponemon Institute Cost of a Data Breach Report 2024.
Healthcare has held the top sector ranking since 2011.
Disruptions to patient care make the healthcare sector a prime target for cybercriminals, according to the report.
By the numbers: The average cost of a healthcare data breach was $9.8 million. That’s a modest decline from 2023 when the price tag reached $10.9 million.
Finance, the second costliest industry for data breaches, reported an average cost of $6.1 million.
- Data breach costs across industries increased 10% this year, reaching an average of $4.9 million.
Other numbers to know:
- 46% of breaches involve customer personal data. Nearly half of all breaches involved customer personally identifiable information, including tax identification (ID) numbers, emails, phone numbers, and home addresses. Intellectual property records came in a close second at 43% of breaches.
- 292 Days to identify and contain breaches involving stolen credentials. Breaches involving stolen or compromised credentials took the longest to identify and contain. Similar attacks, such as phishing, also took a long time to resolve, lasting an average of 261 days.
Recommendations to help reduce the cost of a data breach
The IBM Security and the Ponemon Institute make several recommendations to reduce costs and shorten times to contain breaches. Among them:
- Know your information landscape. Many organizations have incomplete or out-of-date data inventories. Security teams should ensure they have comprehensive visibility into all data environments.
- Take a security-first approach to gen AI adoption. Many organizations are moving quickly ahead with AI adoption. However, only 24% of general AI initiatives are being secured. As gen AI adoption continues, organizations need a framework for securing gen AI data, models, and usage.
- Level up your cyber response training. How an organization reacts and communicates during and after a breach matters more than ever. By investing in cyber response preparedness, organizations can help reduce the costly, disruptive effects of data breaches and support operational continuity.
Go deeper: Read the entire IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report 2024 here.
