The United States was the costliest country for the 12th year in a row, with an average total cost of $9.44 million – up 4.3% from the previous year, with 60% of businesses having to increase their product prices to account for the costs as a result. With significant breaches impacting big businesses, including T-Mobile and Uber, the need for password managers and other cybersecurity is more important than ever. The costliest attack was phishing at $4.91 million, followed by business email compromises ($4.89 million), vulnerability in third-party software ( $4.55 million) and compromised credentials ($4.5 million). The report also revealed that, while the cost of ransomware attacks have declined, the frequency has increased, rising from 7.8% to 11%, meaning that businesses and entrepreneurs need to be more vigilant.
The Businesses Most Financially at Risk
Businesses in the industrial, technology, communication, education, public sector, healthcare and financial service industries were the most financially at risk, with an average cost of $4.82 million paid in data breach costs in 2022 – $1 million more than organizations in other industries. This is partly due to the particularly high costs of the healthcare industry, which had the highest average per-breach cost of $10.1 million overall – up $1.1 million from the previous year. The report, conducted by Ponenmon Institute, is based on a collection of data breaches from 550 organizations around the world between 2021 and 2022, analyzed by IBM. The high cost of paying for cybersecurity attacks can be exceptionally damaging to small businesses, yet as our own research found, investment in prevention is often not seen as a priority. For more information on how to improve your cybersecurity, read our top internet safety tips.
