Cost of a typical data breach estimated at £1.2 million

A new Risk:Value report from NTT Com Security has revealed that most business decision makers in the UK anticipate that to recover from a data breach would cost upwards of £1.2 million on average for their organisation.

The global information security and risk management company found this to be the highest figure for all the countries included in the report, which surveyed business decision makers in the US, Germany, France, Sweden, Norway and Switzerland. Respondents estimate that a breach would cost them £1.2m, even before ‘hidden costs’ like reputational damage and brand erosion are taken into consideration. They also anticipate that on average revenue would drop by 13 per cent following a breach.

Nearly half (48 per cent) of UK business decision makers say information security is ‘vital’ to their organisation and just half agree it is ‘good practice’. A fifth admit that poor information security is the ‘single greatest risk’ to the business, ahead of ‘decreasing profits’ (12 per cent), ‘competitors taking market share’ (11 per cent) and on a par with ‘lack of employee skills’ (21 per cent). More than half (57 per cent) agree that their organisation will suffer a data breach at some point, while a third disagree and one in ten say they do not know.