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ARTICLE · 16 MARCH 2022

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Litigation Risks Arising From Cyber Attacks/Data Breach Incidents

Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer LLP
Explore more from Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer LLP

Now, more than ever, litigation risk related to data breach incidents is something that should be kept front of mind for businesses.

AustraliaPrivacy
Christine Wong
Christine Wong
Georgia Roy
Georgia Roy
Tim Porter
Tim Porter

Now, more than ever, litigation risk related to data breach incidents is something that should be kept front of mind for businesses.

THE LANDSCAPE

Over the 2020-2021 financial year, the Australian Cyber Security Centre received over 67,500 cybercrime reports, nearly 13% more than the 2019-2020 financial year: see here. The cost of these cyber incidents is not insignificant and is closely tied to compliance levels; IBM's Cost of a Data Breach Report 2021 noted that, globally, organisations with a high level of compliance failures (resulting in fines, penalties and lawsuits) experienced an average cost of a data breach of $5.65 million, compared to $3.35 million at organisations with low levels of compliance failures, a difference of $2.3 million or 51.1%.

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