June 2, 2015
A staggering 90% of large businesses in the United Kingdom have reported they have suffered an information security breach, alongside 74% of small and medium-sized businesses. The average cost of the most severe online security breaches for big business can now reach £3.14 million ($4.8 million). It starts at £1.46 million, up from £600,000 in 2014, according to government research published today to raise awareness of the growing cyber threat.
The average cost of security breaches for companies with more than 500 employees is between £1.46 million and £3.14 million, says the U.K.’s Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). For small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs), the average cost of the worst breach is between £75,000 and £310, 800. This is up from a worst case scenario on costs for SMEs of cyber security breaches of just £115,000 in 2014.