Cybersecurity issues have become essential pieces of any organizational strategy. Finding your business entity on the wrong side of a data breach risks compromising personal, financial, or subsidiary records. Global entities that fail to implement proper cybersecurity measures risk subjecting the business to considerable fines and criminal charges for corporate executives.

In the summer of 2023, IBM released a comprehensive “Cost of a Data Breach Report,” summarizing the true costs of extensive data breaches. The report’s architects surveyed over 550 business entities that experienced data breaches within the previous calendar year. Its purpose is to highlight the risk management costs of data breaches.

Let’s break down some of the findings and key takeaways of the report. We’ll also outline recommendations on what your corporation should do to preemptively secure your business from the risk of future breaches.

Highlights from IBM Cost of Data Breach Report

Amongst the biggest takeaways from the report is the pervasive nature of data breaches. Even the world’s largest law firms are not immune to these risks. According to the American Bar Association, 27% of law firms have reported a data breach at some point in their histories.

Here are some of the most important facts to consider as your organization adopts new data security and risk management measures.

Organizational costs of data breaches have increased

IBM’s findings determined that the global average cost of a data breach for organizations has increased to $4.45 million. This marks a 15% increase over the previous three years.

Imagine how heroic your legal, risk management, and compliance departments will appear if you can reduce data security costs. Think about the impact on your organization’s bottom line by effectively reducing risk management costs.

Corporate entities lack security measures to detect data breaches

Most organizations are incapable of detecting when corporate data has been compromised. According to IBM, two out of three cybersecurity breaches were detected by entities other than the organization whose data was compromised. In fact, over one-quarter of data breaches were disclosed to the victim by the hacker(s) themselves.

Automated technologies can assist with cybersecurity threat detection

IBM’s research found that organizations relying on advanced technologies can drastically improve their cybersecurity protocols. Specifically, security AI and automation technologies had drastic impacts on cybersecurity protection.

The numbers show that organizations using these solutions reduced the time they were susceptible to data breaches, on average, by 108 working days. Additionally, they reduced their organizational cybersecurity costs by $1.8 million compared to entities not using these solutions.

What are the real costs of cybersecurity data breaches?

The true costs of data breaches are both direct and indirect. In terms of direct costs, think about the new security measures that must be implemented to counteract data breaches. Additionally, the risk of fines or lawsuits increases the direct financial cost incurred by cybersecurity issues.

The indirect costs include reputational damage to your corporate brand. Reputational damage decreases the trust that consumers have in corporations. When people cannot trust your business, they’re less likely to buy your products or recommend your brand to their networks.

How to protect your corporate entity from data breaches

While no corporate entity can guarantee protection from a data breach, there are ways to minimize the risk of cybersecurity breaches.

One of the best risk management tactics is to store all corporate data within secure entity management platforms. These platforms are protected by biometric and hardware key authentication solutions, ensuring only people with authorized approval can access those reporting records.

Entity management software offers advanced end-to-end data security. This includes secure client sharing and secure audit trails that document when corporate records are viewed, modified, or shared.

The platform creates diligent records management systems that identify specific users who access these records. If any data is breached or exposed to the public, the platform provides a detailed audit of when and how the records were breached. Preventative and responsive measures can thus be implemented to stop the bleeding and secure your corporate entity.

Invest in entity management software to mitigate cybersecurity threats

Don’t allow your corporation to become the next victim of a cybersecurity data breach. Join the MinuteBox revolution today and protect all your corporate entity data behind the most advanced end-to-end security measures on the market.