Research commissioned by the Government has revealed that 87% of all UK SMEs and 93% of firms with more than 250 staff had experienced at least one security breach in 2012.
The 2013 Information Security Breaches Survey report, (22-page / 640KB PDF) published by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, also outlined a growing trend in the average number of security breaches UK firms are experiencing. In addition, the report said that the “average cost of respondents’ worst breach of the year has never been higher”, with large firms’ average worst security breach costing the firm between £450,000 and £850,000, and SME’s on average £35,000-to-£65,000. In some cases individual security breaches cost firms more than £1 million, it said.
Read more on Out-Law.com. Those breach costs seem significantly less than corresponding estimates for the cost of data breaches in the U.S. See page 17 of the report for a breakdown of breach costs there.
The survey report contains a lot of statistics that will be of interest to security professionals.