A new report by tech major IBM has revealed that the average cost of a data breach in India has surged to Rs 17.9 crore in 2023, showing a significant 28% increase since 2020. The study also indicated a 45% rise in detection and escalation costs over the same period, pointing to the growing complexity of breach investigations.
The report highlighted that phishing attacks accounted for nearly 22% of the most common attack types in India, followed by stolen or compromised credentials at 16%. Notably, social engineering emerged as the most expensive root cause of breaches, amounting to approximately Rs 19.1 crore, while malicious insider threats incurred costs of about Rs 18.8 crore.
Interestingly, the implementation of security AI and automation played a pivotal role in reducing breach costs and streamlining investigations. However, the report revealed that a majority of Indian organizations have yet to deploy these technologies, despite their evident benefits.
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In terms of data breach impacts, approximately 28% of incidents in India led to data loss across multiple environments, such as public cloud, private cloud, and on-premises systems, indicating attackers' ability to compromise multiple areas while evading detection.
Globally, the study found that 95% of organizations had experienced multiple breaches, with a concerning trend where breached companies were more likely to pass incident costs onto consumers (57%) rather than increasing security investments (51%).
However, there was a silver lining for companies that extensively used AI and automation for security purposes. Such organizations experienced a data breach lifecycle that was 153 days shorter compared to those that did not utilize these technologies (225 days versus 378 days). Moreover, these tech-savvy organizations saw data breach costs reduced by nearly Rs 9.5 crore compared to their counterparts.
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IBM's report serves as a critical reminder of the increasing threat landscape and the need for businesses to invest in cutting-edge security technologies like AI and automation. By doing so, organizations can not only mitigate data breach risks but also save significant costs and resources during breach investigations.
Inputs from IANS
