Combating rising data breach costs with an exposure management partner

Data breaches are increasingly common and costly, prompting organizations to prioritize robust cybersecurity strategies. The recent 2024 IBM Cost of Data Breach Report highlights a concerning trend: the global average cost of a data breach surged by 10% year-over-year, reaching a staggering $4.88 million. 

This increase, the largest since the pandemic, is driven by factors such as business disruption and the costs of post-breach customer support and remediation. Many businesses are passing these expenses onto customers, creating challenges in competitive markets already facing pricing pressures from inflation.

However, there are new technologies and strategies for combating the growing risk of a data breach and the costs associated with them. In this blog post we explore the findings from this new report, take a closer look at the costs associated with a data breach and the return-on-investment (ROI) of working with an Exposure Management partner to combat them. 

Insights from the IBM report

The 2024 IBM Cost of Data Breach Report emphasizes the significant financial and operational impacts of data breaches, highlighting key areas such as business disruption, the hidden costs of shadow data, and the challenges posed by security staffing shortages. 

Key report takeaways

1. Business disruption and financial losses: Breaches lead to immediate financial losses and long-term operational disruptions, such as the inability to process sales orders or a complete shutdown of production facilities.
2. The risks of shadow data: The report highlights that 35% of breaches involved shadow data—unmanaged data sources often overlooked in security audits. Such breaches are 16% costlier due to the difficulties in tracking and safeguarding this dispersed information.
3. Impact of security staffing shortages: Many breached organizations are experiencing severe security staffing shortages, an issue that has worsened by 26.2% from the previous year. This gap contributes to increased breach costs, averaging $1.76 million more than organizations with adequate staffing.

Understanding these factors is essential for organizations aiming to mitigate risks, identify an appropriate solution to address them and manage costs effectively. 

Combating data breaches with Exposure Management

A growing number of organizations are turning to an Exposure Management partner to help mitigate the risk of a data breach. Exposure Management involves identifying, assessing and mitigating risks associated with an organization's digital assets in real-time. 

This approach encompasses a broad range of activities, from vulnerability assessments and threat intelligence to incident response planning via a 24/7 Security Operations Center (SOC). The primary goal is to minimize the attack surface and reduce the likelihood of a breach.

For example, the UncommonX Exposure Management platform deploys a single agentless virtual appliance to discover everything on and connected to a network, building a real-time inventory of all existing data from all available sources, and correlates the collective information with network telemetry to determine all connections within the environment at any given time. This data and actionable intelligence can be used by internal IT and Security teams, or responded to and remediated by UncommonX’s 24/7 Managed SOC. 

Calculating the ROI of Exposure Management

Investing in an Exposure Management partner not only enhances cybersecurity, it also offers a compelling financial return-on-investment (ROI). UncommonX has developed an ROI calculator to help IT leaders articulate the financial logic behind incident costs and security investments. 

The UncommonX ROI calculator compares the cost of a data breach against the investment in cybersecurity solutions to combat them, considering factors such as initial setup fees, ongoing operational costs, and the potential financial impact of cyber incidents.

Initial costs

Assess the costs for licenses and setup required to deploy cybersecurity solutions.

Operational costs

Evaluate ongoing expenses related to maintaining and updating cybersecurity measures.

Potential breach costs

Estimate the financial impact of cyber incidents without robust cybersecurity.

Financial analysis

Compare potential breach costs against total cybersecurity investment to highlight ROI.