Cost of Data Breach

The 2025 Cost of Data Breach Report is the first major study to survey a large sampling of data breach victims about their AI access controls, so the overall security picture in this area is only just starting to come into focus. Thus far it seems fair to say that control and security are not at all keeping pace with the feverish pace of deployment of AI tools.

IBM's annual Cost of Data Breach report, created in conjunction with Ponemon Institute, shows no relief in sight for victims of breaches with a 10% jump in the global average cost on the year. The highest average cost per incident, $5.17 million, was incurred when the breached data was stored in public clouds.

Average cost of data breach has once again hit a new record to $4.45 million, up 15.3% just from 2020. Yet only 51% of organizations that have suffered a breach plan to increase security spending.