Cost of data breach in India increases 7.29% over a year: IBM Security

The average total cost of a data breach in India increased 7.29% from Rs 119 million last year to Rs 128 million this year, a study by IBM Security claimed on Tuesday.

In India, Rs 5019 is the per capita cost per lost or stolen record, which represents an increase of 9.76% from the previous year. By per capita cost, industrial, pharmaceuticals, technology, services and financial sectors were top affected due to data breaches.

The root cause for about half of the data breaches was identified as malicious or criminal attacks. The system glitch was responsible for 27% of the attacks and human error led to 22% of the attacks.

The mean time to identify the data breach increased from 188 to 221 days and the mean time to contain the data breach decreased from 78 to 77 days, as per the report.

“The cost of data breach continues to grow and this year witnessed a 7.29% rise from last year. Organizations need to significantly invest in three core areas when it comes to cyber security – risk assessment based on business objectives, cognitive threat management and ensuring digital trust,” said Vaidyanathan Iyer, security software leader, IBM India/South Asia.

According to the report, the coverall cost of a data breach has risen 12% over the past 5 years and now costs $3.92 million on average.