IBM Report Reveals Record Data Breach Costs in India for 2024

IBM's latest report shows data breach costs in India soared to Rs 195 million in 2024, a 39% increase since 2020. Increased breach costs are driven by operational downtime, loss of customers, and reputation damage. Proactive cybersecurity and AI technologies can significantly mitigate these costs.

IBM's latest Cost of a Data Breach Report reveals a significant rise in the financial impact of data breaches in India, reaching a record Rs 195 million in 2024. This represents a 39 percent increase since 2020 and a 9 percent rise from last year.

The report states that 70 percent of breached organizations globally experienced disruptions. In India, the cost of lost business, including operational downtime, customer loss, and reputation damage, surged nearly 45 percent. Notification and detection costs also increased by 19 and 7 percent, respectively, highlighting the complexity of breach investigations.

Viswanath Ramaswamy, Vice President of Technology at IBM India & South Asia, emphasized the need for a proactive, AI-powered approach to cybersecurity. He stressed the importance of data security and compliance with the upcoming DPDP Act 2023.

The report identified phishing and compromised credentials as the most common initial attack vectors in India, each accounting for 18 percent of incidents. Cloud misconfiguration was the next most common. Business email compromise was found to be the costliest cause, averaging Rs 215 million per breach.

Data breaches involving public clouds were notably costly, with 34 percent of breaches in India occurring in such environments, averaging Rs 227 million. Breaches spanning multiple environments took the longest to identify and contain, averaging 327 days.

India's industrial sector experienced the highest breach costs, averaging Rs 255 million, followed by the technology and pharmaceutical sectors. Globally, critical infrastructure sectors faced the highest breach costs.

Offensive security testing, AI-driven insights, and proactive threat hunting were identified as key factors in reducing breach costs. Organisations that identified and contained breaches in under 200 days incurred significantly lower costs.

Extensive use of security AI and automation in India reduced the breach lifecycle by 112 days and cut costs by Rs 130 million. However, 72 percent of organizations still have limited or no use of these technologies, indicating significant potential for growth.