UK Data Breach Costs Rise 68% in Five Years – Ponemon Study

The cost of a data breach for UK businesses has risen by 68% during the past five years, according to a new Ponemon Institute study, which says negligent employees and contractors pose the greatest data security risks to organizations.

Much like the U.S. study by Ponemon reported in this blog last week, organizational costs of a data breach in the UK declined from £1.9 million in 2010 to £1.75 million in 2011. The U.S. data breach report found that the average organizational cost per data breach was down 24% from 2010. That sounds good in headlines, but the fact of the matter is, the average U.S. business cost is still $5.5 million, while the cost per compromised record is estimated at $194.

For UK businesses, the average cost per lost or stolen record increased from £71 in 2010 to £79 in 2011. Employee or partner errors were attributed to 36% of UK data breaches last year, according to the study.

An analysis by InfoSecurity notes that the Ponemon report suggests that in some areas customers are becoming desensitized to data loss. Average abnormal churn decreased from 3.3% in 2010 to 2.9% in 2011. UK organizations employing a CISO with overall responsibility for enterprise data protection can reduce the average cost of a data breach by as much as £18 per compromised record, the report added.

Elsewhere in the world, the annual cost of a data breach among Australian companies was reported to be $2.61 million in 2011, a separate Ponemon report released this week found. The cost associated with the loss of a single stolen record rose from $128 in 2011 to $138 in 2011.