Security breaches cost companies an average of nearly $650 000 per incident last year, Kaspersky Lab reports.
The company commissioned research into the cost of security incidents, asking firms around the world to quantify their actual damages in the wake of breaches, not including "soft" costs like brand damage.
The US reported the greatest costs, with large firms indicating average costs of $818 000 per incident. In Europe, that figure drops to $627 000, with a global average of $649 000.
Among SMEs, costs were much lower, ranging from $96 000 in APAC to just $21 000 in Russia.
South African figures were not stripped out, but companies in this region are smaller than their large US/EU counterparts, and would tend to fall towards the lower end of the spectrum.
Costs were broken up into consulting, security technology, and downtime, with the last category rated as the highest cost factor. There was also a sharp spike in the number of respondents who indicated they informed regulators about breaches.
Most of the costs would be avoidable with strong security measures in place, Kaspersky noted. "Typically, companies that have fallen prey to cyber attacks only come to understand the importance and value of these solutions after an incident occurs - meaning additional, preventable costs."
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