AI driving down costs of data breaches, says IBM

JESS JONES

UK ORGANISATIONS face an average cost of £3.4m for data breach incidents but AI could reduce these costs by £1.6m on average, a report by IBM Security has revealed.

IBM’s annual report showed a decrease in the total average cost of a data breach in the UK from £3.8m in 2022 to £3.4m this year, although this remains a nine per cent increase on 2020.

Financial services and technology businesses were among the industries most impacted by data breaches in the UK, causing average losses of £5.3m and £4.9m respectively.

However, UK businesses which utilised AI and automation reduced their breach costs by an average of £1.6m and contained the breach more rapidly, shortening the average

‘breach lifecycle’ by 108 days, according to the report.

Martin Borrett, technical director of IBM Security UK & Ireland, said “the slight decline from last year in the overall cost of a data breach in the UK suggests the powerful impact security AI and automation may already be having on early adopters”.

The report found over a third (37 per cent) of firms surveyed had yet to embrace such technologies.