$7.01 Million – Average Cost to Resolve a Data Breach

Data breaches are not only becoming more prevalent among companies located in the U.S., recovering from them is also becoming more expensive.

According to the 11^th annual benchmark study conducted by the Ponemon Institute, the average total cost to resolve a data breach increased by 7 percent since the previous study conducted in 2013, to a staggering $7.01 million. The average cost for each lost or stolen record containing sensitive information increased by 2 percent, from $217 to $221 per record.

The 2016 study, released in June, examined costs incurred by 64 U.S. companies in 16 industry sectors. Data breaches involving more than 100,000 compromised records were not included in the results as the institute found that the types of breaches incurred by most organizations averaged 29,611 compromised records.