Healthcare pays dearly for data breaches

Editor's Note

Responding to and recovering from data breaches in healthcare is more expensive than any other industry, according to a report by IBM and the Ponemon Institute.

Healthcare Dive reported on the results August 1. According to that article, the $9.8 million average cost for a breach this year dropped slightly from last year’s $10.9 million. However, the expense still dwarfs that of other sectors, such as second-place finance’s $6.1 million average cost. Other key findings include:

• Data breach costs increased 10% to an average of $4.9 million across industries.
• Higher costs were reportedly driven by business disruptions and customer support and remediation, with more than half of organizations passing costs on to customers.
• Organizations using AI reduced data breach damages by an average of $2.2 million  

The full report offers further context on the report as well as recent trends in healthcare cybersecurity.