Breaches in Saudi Arabia and the UAE Cost $194 Per Lost Record On Average

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IBM Security recently announced the findings of their in-depth analysis of over 500 real-world breaches, across 17 different countries, in over a year. The study revealed the Middle East region to hold the second highest ranking. 

The financial impact in the Middle East has risen by six per cent and has reached the highest cons in the report’s eight-year history. The organisations that were scrutinised in Saudi Arabia and the UAE suggested that security incidents had become harder and expensive to contain due to the pandemic. It cost them an average of $6.9 million per breach, which is higher than the global average of $4.2 million per incident. The results indicate that security might have lagged behind the rapid IT changes, and thus hindered the organisations’ capability to respond to the breaches successfully. 

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Conducted by Ponemon Institute and analysed by IBM Security, the survey suggested the energy sector, financial services, and healthcare to be the top three industries per record cost of a data breach in the Middle East region. The study also found that breaches cost companies surveyed in Saudi Arabia and the UAE $194 per lost or stolen record on average. 

On the other hand, companies that had modernised their business operations had lower breach costs. Companies that had adopted a zero trust security approach were better positioned to deal with data breaches. 

The report is based on an in-depth analysis of real-world data breaches of 100,000 records or less, experienced by over 500 organisations worldwide between May 2020 and March 2021.