The cost per record of a data breach is about 58 cents per record, well below the widely accepted previous estimate of about $201 per record, according to Verizon's 2015 Data Breach Investigations Report.
Verizon's calculation was done in conjunction with NetDiligence, which aggregates data from cyber-insurance carriers. The data from Verizon and NetDiligence reflect actual cyber liability claims. The Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR), released annually based on data provided by Verizon, its customers and partners, examined 191 insurance claims related to loss of payment cards, personal information and medical records.
Mark Kedgley, CTO, New Net Technologies comments, "The premise of this analysis is useful in trying to understand the real cost of a breach, however, the headline conclusion may not be helpful. Calculating an 'average' cost is vital to allow organizations to assess any risk based on real-life data, but the fact still remains that many data breaches run into the millions when it comes to the cost of loss of data such as payment cards, personal information, and medical records."
"Ultimately organizations still need to take control of assessing their own risk, albeit with data from reports like these providing some validation. Either way, the threat of a breach is ever-present and the implementation of security best practices with robust compliance controls the only way to mitigate this."
You can read the full article on ZDNet here.