The average cost of a data breach for businesses has risen to a record high of £3.7 million, a 10% increase from last year.

The increasing prevalence and sophistication of cyber-attacks means cost of data breaches for companies has reached a record high of £3.7 million, up 10% from £3.38 million last year. In most cases, this is driven by lost business and third-party response costs to repair damages.

According to IBM’s annual Cost of Data Breach report, based on analysis of breaches experienced by 604 organisations globally, costs are at their highest since the pandemic. 70% of breached organisations described “significant” or “very significant” disruption, as recovery times post-data breach have also increased, sometimes to over 100 days.

A commonality in 40% of breaches, according to the report, is data stored across multiple environments, rather than unified in one location, such as a public, on-prem or private cloud. However, 23% were caused by IT system failures and 22% human error. In a press release, IBM emphasises the importance of “getting ahead" of future attacks, adding: “AI and threat intelligence will be crucial for organisations”.