Dive Brief:

• Nearly half (47%) of U.S. businesses have suffered significant revenue loss due to a data security incident, according to a survey by data protection company Arcserve.
• “For those laser-focused on growing revenue and controlling costs, this revenue downside perspective should be a wake-up call,” according to a report on the findings released Tuesday.
• Eight out of 10 surveyed organizations had been hit by ransomware. On average, 30% of survey respondents’ data could not be recovered after a successful ransomware attack.  

Dive Insight:

AT&T, Ticketmaster owner Live Nation Entertainment and UnitedHealth Group are among companies that have reported massive data breaches since January.

Last month, UnitedHealth said a February ransomware attack against its Change Healthcare subsidiary could cost the company as much as $2.45 billion this year, up roughly $1 billion from its prior expectations.

The global average cost of a data breach is nearly $4.9 million this year, a 10% spike compared with 2023 levels, IBM said in a report last month.

“A rise in the cost of lost business, including operational downtime and lost customers, and the cost of post-breach responses, such as staffing customer service help desks and paying higher regulatory fines, drove this increase,” the report said.

Data breaches that took more than 200 days to identify and contain had the highest average cost at nearly $5.5 million, IBM said.

More than half of breached organizations are facing high levels of security staffing shortages, according to IBM’s research. Another challenge is that generative AI models and third-party applications are expanding the attack surface, putting pressure on security teams, the report said.

Arcserve found that only about 40% of all software-as-a-service applications are monitored and secured by organizations themselves, leaving the rest either “unattended” or in the hands of third parties.

“The report that we published today shows that many are well prepared — but still too many remain vulnerable,” Arcserve CEO Chris Babel said in a press release.

Arcserve’s report was based on a survey of 150 data security leaders in the U.S.