It appears that one of the most regulated industries also holds the title for the highest average data breach costs – coming in at just under $11 million per breach.
For the last 18 years, IBM has provided the world with a view into what organizations go through – and the resulting costs – when remediating a data breach. It’s far more than just stopping an attacker and restoring systems; there are lost business costs, costs associated with detection and escalation of an attack, post-breach response costs, and notification costs.
According to IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report 2023, the average data breach costs $4.45 million, with over half (52%) of these breaches resulting in customer data being stolen. And with the customer data in Healthcare falling under regulations with severe penalties, it only makes sense that a data breach is going to cost more. According to the report, data breach costs in Healthcare averaged $10.93 million – more than double the average, and dwarfing the second highest industry (Financial Services) which experienced data breach costs averaging only $5.9 million.
While Healthcare’s nearly $11 million price tag for data breaches is only up 8% from last year’s number, it does represent a 53% rise over the last three years. It’s also the risk value that organizations in that sector should measure the cost of proactive security controls – which includes Security Awareness Training – against when budgeting effective tools that will stop breaches before they ever begin.
New-school Security Awareness Training is critical to enabling you and your IT staff to connect with users and help them make the right security decisions all of the time. This isn't a one and done deal, continuous training and simulated phishing are both needed to mobilize users as your last line of defense. Request your one-on-one demo of KnowBe4's security awareness training and simulated phishing platform and see how easy it can be!
