Mistakes cost millions says data breach report

Symantec in conjunction with the Ponemon Institute has released a new study into the cost of data breaches. What it reveals is that whilst most of us worry about malware and hackers, it’s actually mistakes and system errors that cause the majority of breaches.

According to the survey, glitches and negligence between them accounted for 64 percent of last year’s data breaches. This includes employees leaking or mishandling information, violation of regulations, accidental data dumps and stolen or lost laptops.

What’s worrying is that many employees don’t realise they're doing anything wrong. Around 62 percent of employees think it’s acceptable to transfer corporate data on to personal devices and a majority of those don’t delete it afterwards, leaving the data vulnerable to leaks.

Whilst the cost of a data breach varies around the world, it's estimated at $159 per record in the United States. That puts the total cost per breach last year at $5.4 million, though the good news is it marks a decline from 2010’s peak of $7.24 million.

If you're worried about how much this might cost your company Symantec has produced a handy Data Breach Calculator  to help you work it out. Once you've scared your boss with that you can look at practical steps to reduce the risk including improved training, use of encryption and identifying the most vulnerable data.

You can read more and access the full report on Symantec’s Connect blog.