---
title: "Cost of a Data Breach: Climbing Toward $4 Million"
description: Research from Ponemon Institute and IBM shows the average cost of a data breach in 2019. Global and U.S. data breach costs. Healthcare data breach cost.
---

[SecureWorld News ](https://www.secureworld.io/industry-news)

# [Cost of a Data Breach: Climbing Toward $4 Million](https://www.secureworld.io/industry-news/cost-of-a-data-breach-now)

 Written by [SecureWorld News Team](https://www.secureworld.io/industry-news/author/secureworld-news-team) | Fri | Aug 9, 2019 | 3:15 PM Z

The Ponemon Institute just released its annual Cost of a Data Breach Report which it creates for IBM.

The numbers reveal that data breaches are becoming more expensive. This doesn't come as a surprise, however, it's an important benchmark to track. And it's an important benchmark worth sharing with executive leadership.

## **2019 Cost of a Data Breach report highlights**

If we had to share a few bullet points from the report, it would be these:

- Average global cost of a data breach: $3.92 million 
- Most expensive country for a data breach: United States
- Average cost of a U.S. data breach: $8.19 million
- Industry vertical with the most expensive data breach: healthcare
- Average cost of a healthcare data breach: $6.45 million
- Average data breach size: about 25,000 records 

### **Most cybersecurity leaders anticipate a data breach**

Dr. Larry Ponemon, founder of the Ponemon Institute, says his research in the last few years shows a growing trend: CISOs and security leaders believe there's a significant chance of a data breach happening to them.

See [Most Security Leaders Expect a Data Breach](https://www.secureworld.io/industry-news/2018-most-cisos-expect-a-cyber-incident-ponemon-research-reveals-why) for more on this.

#### **Major risk factors for a data breach**

Dr. Ponemon also tells SecureWorld that a major cyber risk factor facing organizations right now is a lack of security talent. Listen to his brief explanation on the ways this plays out:

[RESOURCE: [Ponemon 2019 Cost of a Data Breach](https://www.ibm.com/security/data-breach) report]

Dr. Ponemon will keynote [SecureWorld Detroit](http://events.secureworldexpo.com/details/detroit-mi-2019/) on October 1-2, 2019, sharing about his latest cybersecurity research. 

[View full post](https://www.secureworld.io/industry-news/cost-of-a-data-breach-now)

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