As the chances of a data breach incident increase, savvy businesses have invested time and thought in a response plan. But plans never survive first contact with the enemy. Stress test your incident response plan to find and resolve its weaknesses while time is on your side.
According to the Ponemon Institute’s 2016 Cost of Data Breach Study United States:
- Lost business is the biggest financial consequence of a data breach. Taking steps to retain customers’ trust reduces a breach’s long-term financial impact.
- The longer it takes to contain a breach the more costly it becomes. Breaches contained within 30 days of discovery cost an average of $5.24 million. If it takes more than 30 days to contain the breach, the average cost increases to $8.85 million.
- The average breach in 2016 cost $221 per record. Having an incident response plan and team in place, employee training, board-level involvement, and a CISO in position are associated with reducing the cost of data breach $56 per record.
