Ponemon Institute finds that cost of data breaches is rising

The average total cost of a data breach has increased 15% in the last year to $3.5 million, according to a global analysis issued by the Traverse City, Michigan-based Ponemon Institute.

The study, which was sponsored by Armonk, New York-based IBM Corp. and included 314 companies in 11 countries, also found that the average cost paid for each lost or stolen record containing sensitive and confidential information increased more than 9%, to $145.

There were differences among countries, however. U.S. and German organizations on average experienced costs of $201 and $195 per record respectively, for instance, according to the study, “2014 Cost of data Breach Study: Global Analysis.”

According to the study released Monday, 42% of data breach incidents involved malicious or criminal attack, while 30% involved a negligent employee or contractor, and 29% involved system glitches that include both information technology and business process failures.

Malicious attacks are the most costly globally, according to the study. Data breaches caused by malicious or criminal attacks cost companies an average of $159 per compromised record, while those caused by system glitches cost $126 and those by human error, $117.

The study also found that 32% of organizations have cyber insurance to manage the risk of attacks of threats, and of these, 54% are satisfied with the coverage.

In addition to the U.S. and Germany, countries represented in the report are the United Kingdom, Australia, France, Brazil, Japan, Italy, India, and a consolidation of organizations in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Copies of the study are available here.