IBM Security Report: UK businesses face £3.4m data breach costs but AI could help
UK organisations face an average cost of £3.4m for data breach incidents but AI could reduce these costs by £1.6m on average, a report by IBM Security has revealed.
Their annual Cost of a Data Breach Report showed a decrease in the total average cost of a data breach in the UK from £3.8m in 2022 to £3.4m this year, although this is still a nine per cent increase since 2020.
Financial services and technology businesses were among the industries most impacted by data breaches in the UK, causing average losses of £5.3m and £4.9m respectively.
However, UK businesses who utilised AI and automation reduced their breach costs by an average of £1.6m and contained the breach more rapidly, shortening the average ‘breach lifecycle’ by 108 days.
Martin Borrett, technical director of IBM Security UK & Ireland, said “the slight decline from last year in the overall cost of a data breach in the UK suggests the powerful impact security AI and automation may already be having on early adopters.”
He added it could be the “driving force needed to help defenders bridge the speed gap with attackers.”
Less than a third of the surveyed UK organisations were “extensively” deploying security AI and automation, while 37 per cent had yet to embrace these technologies.
In its 18th year, IBM’s study analysed real-world data breaches experienced by 553 global organisations between March 2022 and March 2023.