How Much Do Data Breaches Cost a Company?

There are a number of reasons to keep your company’s data secure and as you know meeting and maintaining PCI compliance is the best way to keep it that way. Chances are you are running a small business and the biggest incentive to maintaining PCI compliance and keeping your customer’s information safe is financial. So how much can a data breach cost a company?

A 2018 study by IBM says that the cost for each stolen record over the course of a year is $148. That may not seem like much at first but how many records do you have stored that could potentially be stolen? It can add up. The average breach costs a company approximately $3.86 million over the course of a year. That is a lot of money.

Your company may not be Yahoo or Facebook or Marriott or British Airways (all victims of customer information being stolen) but that does not mean that you do not need to take your cyber and data security seriously as well. That may seem daunting as you juggle all of the other responsibilities but it needs to be done. The good news is that PCI compliance provides a guideline for you to follow.

Studies have shown that there is one thing in common with all data breaches: the breached party did not meet PCI compliance when the breach happened. Some of the parties passed the yearly PCI compliance check and laxed, some never met it but in the end businesses that meet PCI compliance are not breached. Keep that in mind.

JLE Business Consultants takes PCI compliance seriously. We would be remiss if we did not. We do not want our clients to have to deal with a costly and expensive data breach. We hope that you also take PCI compliance seriously and if you need help with that give us a call. You have a lot to lose if you don’t.