EDITOR’S QUESTION
WHAT PROCEDURES
SHOULD COMPANIES
HAVE IN PLACE
TO SAFEGUARD
THEIR DATA?
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Kaspersky Lab study finds data breaches now cost
enterprises in the META region about US$1 million
N
ew research from Kaspersky Lab
has revealed that safeguarding
data is continuing to present new
challenges for businesses, with the most
expensive cybersecurity incidents over the
last 12 months related to data protection.
To enable digital transformation without
compromising on security, businesses
are now prioritising IT security spending.
In 2018, enterprises are allocating up to
27% of their IT budgets to cybersecurity,
redefining the strategic role of corporate
data protection.
Data breach costs rise
The 2018 state of corporate IT security
economics mirrors the shifting impact of
cybersecurity on the business bottom-line.
With the consequences of data breaches
becoming more expensive and destructive,
during the last 12 months, businesses faced
a disturbing reality: for SMBs in the region,
the average cost of a breach reached
US$114K in 2018, which is 30% higher
than in 2017 (US$88K). For enterprises,
it increased by 63%, with the average
financial impact of a breach now reaching
up to US$965K.
The consequences of data breaches
These increasing costs are a major
concern for businesses amidst the digital
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INTELLIGENTCIO
transformation wave that involves the need
to operate with growing IT infrastructure.
The report highlights that in the META
region to date in 2018, SMBs that faced
data breaches on average lost US$15K on
new business opportunities.
Furthermore, another US$15K was lost
as a result of damage to credit rating
and insurance premiums and US$14K on
improving their software and infrastructure
after the breach occurred.
Enterprises in the region, which had similar
consequences, had to spend more to
recover from the breach. A total of US$144K
was spent on improving software and
infrastructure and the same amount of
money was lost because of the damage to
credit rating and insurance premiums.
Unlike SMBs, enterprises also had to
spend US$113K on additional PR exposure,
in an aim to repair the brand damage due to
the incident.
This is illustrated by the growth in IT security
budgets for 2018, which sees enterprises
spending almost a third of their IT budget
(US$4.8 million) on cybersecurity strategies.
One of the key reasons behind this
additional investment in IT security is the
increased complexity of IT infrastructure
(as businesses increasingly adopt cloud
platforms), along with helping to improve
the level of specialist security expertise.
The combination of these factors shows that
businesses are really feeling the impact of
IT security and illustrates the scale of the
challenges they are facing, as they battle to
stay secure.
“To support dynamic business changes
and to increase efficiency, companies are
embracing cloud and business mobility,” said
Maxim Frolov, Vice President of Global Sales
at Kaspersky Lab.
Security spending on the rise, to
maintain digital transformation. “Cybersecurity has become not just a line
item in IT bills, but a boardroom issue and a
business priority for companies of any size,
as evidenced by companies raising their IT
security budgets.
With the cost of IT incidents on the rise,
businesses are realising they have to
prioritise cybersecurity spending if digital
transformation projects are to run smoothly
and securely. “Businesses expect a strong payoff as
the stakes continue to get higher. Besides
traditional cybersecurity risks, many
companies now have to deal with growing
regulatory pressures, for example.”
www.intelligentcio.com