The third annual UK Ponemon Study shows the cost of a data breach continues to increase.  In 2009 each lost record cost firms £64 in 2009; £69 for private sector, £59 for public organisations.

This is the third report by the Ponemon Institute sponsored by the PGP corporation.  It has found that each customer record lost on average cost £64 in 2009, a 7% increase on 2008's figure of £60 and a significant increase of £47 in 2007.  Lost business due to customer trust was the main contributor, making up £29 per record.

The 2009 study is the first of its kind which quantifies the cost associated with both the private and public sector and found that the average cost for a UK public organisation was £59 per record lost.  While the impact of lost business is particularly lower in the public sector compared to commercial firms, far higher costs are accrued with the detection and escalation of a breach and the associated costs for notifying citizens and dealing with enquiries are far higher in the public sector.  In comparison, the cost per lost record in the commercial sector stood at £69 per record.

The 2009 Ponemon Institute benchmark study focuses on the cost of activities resulting from real life data loss incidents occurring between May 2009 and January 2010.  A total of 33 UK organisations - 25 from the private sector and 8 from the public sector participated in the research, revealing breach events of between 5,200 and 60,000 personally identifiable information records.  These breaches cost between £365k and £3.92 million to manage, at an average of £1.68 million.

For Further Information

To request the full 2009 UK Cost of a Data Breach Report free of charge, click here

To read the summary report findings of this Ponemon Institute report, click here

To learn more about PGP solutions for enterprise data protection and how EJC can help you defend your data click here