The Price Tag Attached to Data Breaches

A recent poll showed that of major U.S. internet companies, Twitter is the least trusted when it comes to keeping data secure. Of course, no company has a fail-safe method of data protection and the consequences of a leak can be severe. As well as the negative effect on public image and reputation, the infographic below shows the average monetary cost of a data breach.

As reported by IBM Security and the Ponemon Institute, the costs are the highest in the U.S. with the average incident coming with a price tag of $7.91 million. Although one may assume that such leaks are always caused by criminal activity, 25 percent of the cases examined were actually due to human error.