The much-anticipated Ponemon Institute 2018 Cost of Data Breach Study: Global Overview is out and, not surprisingly, the cost of a data breach continues to rise.  In this country, the cost is up $8 per record, going from $225 per record last year to $233 per record this year.  A more alarming jump, however, is the cost of a data breach in the health care sector, which is up to $408 per record from $340 just one year ago.  In terms of controlling costs, the study provides solid evidence that swift response and incident response planning save money.

According to the study, the average time to identify a breach is 197 days and the average time to contain it is 69 days.  Companies that acted more quickly and contained a breach in less than 30 days saved over $1 million.  The study also confirms that preparation reduces the cost of a breach.  The study points to an average savings of $14 per record when a company had an incident response plan in place prior to the breach.

To prepare its study, the Ponemon Institute extensively surveyed 477 companies that experienced a data breach over the past 12 months and performed a breach cost analysis based on four factors:  detection and escalation; post data breach response; notification costs; and lost business cost.