There is probably more information stored on your computer than you realize. Your bank details, address, and date of birth have all been inputted into a computer at some point in your life. As scary as it may sound, this information presents a number of opportunities for hackers.
There are numerous ways you can stay safe online, creating strong unique passwords, using a residential proxy, and installing antivirus software can help you feel secure when you’re browsing the internet.
However, this may not stop hackers from trying to get your valuable information. Employees and employers are targeted every day, all around the world. That’s why, here at Proxyrack, we wanted to find out the average cost of a data breach.
As well as looking at which countries experience the most data breaches, we’ve looked at the average cost of a data breach in countries and industries, as well as how the cost is affected by the number of remote workers to show you the financial damage these data breaches can cause.
The Countries Losing The Most Money to Data Breaches
Data breaches happen all over the world. That’s why we wanted to find where in the world they were the most costly.
1. United States - $9 million average cost of a data breach
Data breaches in the United States were the most expensive, with an average cost of $9 million. Data breaches in the US cost just over $2 million more than any other country on our list.
2. Middle East - $6.93 million average cost of a data breach
Data breaches in the Middle East are the second most costly in our list. A data breach here costs, on average, $6.93 million. The Middle East is made up of a number of different countries, including the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
3. Canada - $5.4 million average cost of a data breach
Canada completes our top three with the average cost of a data breach costing $5.4 million. Canada’s average cost of a data breach has increased by $900,000 since 2020, which is the equivalent of 20%.
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The Industries Losing The Most Money to Data Breaches
For hackers, some industries will be more lucrative than others. So we found out which industries had the highest cost of a data breach.
1. Healthcare - $9.23 million average cost of a data breach
Data breaches in the healthcare industry were the most expensive with an average cost of $9.23 million. A data breach in the healthcare industry was almost $4 million more expensive than any other industry.
2. Financial - $5.72 million average cost of a data breach
The financial industry was the second most expensive, with the average cost of a data breach costing $5.72 million. The average cost of a data breach has actually decreased since 2020, going from $5.85 million to $5.72 million.
3. Pharmaceuticals - $5.04 million average cost of a data breach
Data breaches in the pharmaceutical industry complete our top three, with the average cost of a data breach sitting at just over $5 million. The average cost of a pharmaceutical data breach has narrowly decreased since 2020 when it was $5.06 million.
The Effects of Remote Working on Data Breaches
With more and more employees choosing to work from home, we wanted to find out how the percentage of remote employees affects the cost of a data breach.
1. 81% to 100% - $5.54 million
Data breaches to companies with the highest percentage of remote employees were the most costly in 2021. For companies with 81% to 100% of remote employees, the average cost of a data breach was just over $5.5 million.
2. 61% to 80% - $4.39 million
Companies with 61% to 80% of remote employees experienced the second-highest cost of a data breach. Between this range, the average cost of a data breach was just under $4.4 million.
3. 10% to 20% - $4.21 million
At the other end of the spectrum, companies with just 10% to 20% of remote workers experienced the third-highest average data breach cost. Between 10% and 20%, data breaches cost, on average, $4.21 million.
The Countries Most Commonly Targeted by Data Breaches
1. United States - 7,221,177 breaches per 1 million people
The United States takes first place with over seven million breaches per million people. A total of 2.4 billion breaches have happened in the US, with 30 million happening in 2022, and 452 million happening in the last three years.
2. France - 6,488,574 breaches per 1 million people
In second place is France, with almost 6.5 million breaches per million people. France had a total of 419 million data breaches, almost 16 million of these came in 2022, with 66 million of France’s total coming in the last three years.
3. South Sudan - 6,184,061 breaches per 1 million people
Completing our top three is South Sudan with over 6 million breaches per 1 million people. South Sudan had almost 67.5 million breaches in total, with 10 million of these coming in the last three years. 1 million of these came in 2022 alone.
Methodology
We used IBM’s ‘Cost of a Data Breach Report 2021’ to find out the average cost of a data breach for countries, industries, and the percentage of remote workers.
We then used Surfshark to find out the total number of breaches for each country. This data was accurate from 07.11.2022.
To calculate the breaches per 1 million people, we used World Population Review to get the population. Countries with fewer than 1 million people were removed.
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