A recent study conducted by Ponemon Institute for IBM Security reveals that the average data breach cost has reached $4.24 million per incident. This is the highest data breach costs have been in the 17 years since IBM Security began compiling the yearly “Cost of a Data Breach Report”.

So, if businesses are going to deter from having hefty costs, it is ideal to know how to spot the warning signs of data breach, but also what steps to put into place sooner than later to avoid high data breach costs overall.

Spotting the warning signs of data breach:

1. Watch out for a sudden surge in spam emails.
2. Monitor your website traffic and network for any suspicious activity.  If you notice an notice an unusual increase in visits or new users, it might be signs of a data breach.
3. Monitor log files for file installation anomalies or anything else that looks out of place. This is where the IT staff comes in handy as they have to be active participants in keeping their organization safe.

A bonus tip that can also help you spot the warning signs of a data breach includes finding data from other data breaches online since hackers often share data from data breaches on the darkweb.

This means you can do a quick search for data from data breaches in your industry and see if you come up anywhere.

When it comes to reducing your data breach costs, the report conducted by the Ponemon Institute for IBM Security found key factors that accomplished this for companies.

We’re going to share with you three of them so that you can check to see how your cyber hygiene is and what you can consider investing in next for your cyber resiliency.

The top three cybersecurity factors that reduced the costs of a data breach are:

1. Having a holistic security strategy that combines artificial intelligence, security analytics, encryption, cybersecurity automation strategies, and security tools.
   • The report found that companies that implemented AI, security analytics and encryption tools shaved between $1.25 million and $1.49 million off their costs over those that didn’t turn to such methods.
   • Companies that had a fully deployed security automation strategy saw an average cost of $2.9 million, while those with no automation in place had to spend $6.71 million to respond to a breach.
2. Having an effective zero trust security approach.
   • Companies with an effective zero trust approach average data breach cost of $3.28 million, $1.76 million lower than those that failed to adopt this strategy.
3. Having an incident response team and response plans.
   • Companies with an IR team and plan spent an average of $3.25 million to deal with a data breach, whereas those without these measures were hit by an average cost of $5.71 million.

Remembering that data breach is more likely to happen than not, due to the infinite space of the digital arena and cyber criminals lurking behind the scenes to try and penetrate networks and backdoors for many reasons, one of which money, is what you want to remember.

Spotting the warning signs of data breach, as well as preparing to reduce your company’s costs is something that can help you greatly.  As you can see by the report, the numbers clearly show how much cybersecurity saves a business in costs, but also in being able to make it after a data breach.

Reach out to talk about your cybersecurity posture and for any support you may need with cyber resiliency.  Our experts are here to help!

Schedule your free consultation today.