Commentary on cost(s) of breaches

[Henry Brown <hbrown () knology net>]

IMO interesting:
 From Information Week: http://bit.ly/9cBLkg

When It Comes To Data Breaches, U.S. Most Costly

Posted by George Hulme, Apr 28, 2010 06:13 PM



Research published today shows that the average cost of a data breach, 
globally, is about $3.43 million per incident and $142 per compromised 
record. But that's not the entire story.

The 2009 Annual Study: Global Cost of a Data Breach, conducted by the 
Ponemon Institute and sponsored by security firm PGP Corporation is the 
global version of the U.S. Data Breach report we covered in January.

What’s interesting in this study is how it highlights that data breaches 
are more costly in countries that have data breach disclosure laws, such 
as California’s SB 1386. In the U.S., all but four states have a similar 
law. That could be why at $204 per record, the U.S. is 43 percent higher 
than the global average cost for data breaches this report found.

Germany ($177 per record) had similar beach laws go into effect last 
July, which may explain why it is the second most costly country to 
experience a breach. While no such data breach disclosure laws exist in 
Australia ($114), France ($119), and the UK ($98) – all of their costs, 
cited in parentheses, were below the global average.

The over-arching conclusion from this study is the staggering impact 
that regulation has on escalating the cost of a data breach, said Dr. 
Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of The Ponemon Institute, in a 
statement. The U.S. figures are testament to this and it’s clear that, 
as and when breach notification laws are introduced across the rest of 
the world, other countries will follow the same pattern and costs will 
rise, he said.

...
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