The average cost of a data breach in France is 3.75 million euros, according to the latest edition of IBM’s barometer “Cost of a data breach”, downloadable here. This is a decrease of around 5% compared to the previous study, which estimated this damage at around 3.95 million euros, specifies the company.
A slight drop that is not found in the general trend. At the global level, the Ponemon Institute, in charge of producing this barometer for “Big Blue”, concludes that the average cost of a data breach has increased, estimated at 4.45 million dollars. Or “an increase of 15% over the last three years”, notes IBM.
34 organizations questioned in France
A total of 3,475 people were interviewed as part of this study, between March 2022 and March 2023, which analyzes the cost of hacking 553 organizations, including 34 in France. Thus, if the sample seems large on a global scale, it seems more limited in France. Similarly, the organizations studied seem to be relatively large structures, which could explain the importance of the amounts involved.
According to IBM, it would take 210 days in France to identify a hack and 72 days to contain it. However, its barometer sees encouraging signs. As a result, threat detection and response have reportedly improved globally, with a greater share of ransomware attacks stopped in the past year.
Ransomware
But at the same time, Big Blue notes that 47% of ransomware victims would have paid a ransom. The company also reports that almost a third of victims still prefer to remain silent about this kind of attack, by not seeking justice and the police.
Such a strategy has a cost, however, deplores IBM. Thus, the bill for a hack of a victim of ransomware who did not want to appeal to justice would be on average higher by 470,000 dollars, with a crisis lasting on average 33 days longer. “Paying a ransom and avoiding authorities can only increase the costs of the incident and slow down the response,” the company summarizes.