The economic cost of being hacked

We all know that hacking is big business, 2015 proved to be a record year for cyber crime, and it's predicted that 2016 could be even worse. But aside from the worry of putting customer and employee information at risk, what are the financial penalties of being hacked?

Cyber security specialist Praesidio has put together an infographic looking at just how expensive a cyber attack can be.

Increasingly businesses expect to be attacked at some point. 52 percent of brands anticipate being attacked in 2016, and only 20 percent say they're confident about avoiding a phishing attack. The total average cost of a data breach is now put at $6.53 million which includes $3.72 million in lost business. For financial companies the cost of each compromised record is put at $259, with an average of 10,000 records stolen per incident that’s a significant cost.

The total cost of damage due to cyber attacks is put at $400 million. Forensic investigations can cost up to $2,000 an hour, while the average annual salary of a security engineer is $92,000.

You can see more alarming statistics about the cost of cyber crime in the full infographic below.

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