This past week, the Ponemon Institute announced their publication of the results of their fifth annual study on the costs of data breaches for U.S.-based companies. The study was sponsored by the PGP Corporation. A similar report for U.K.-based companies was also released. This year’s report, entitled 2009 Annual Study: Cost of a Data Breach, displays the results of the Ponemon Institute’s research of data breach incidents occurring in 2009.
Overall, as with previous years, the study found that U.S. organizations continue to experience increased costs associated with the data breaches they experience.

A new benchmark study released by the Ponemon Institute indicates that the costs associated with data breaches in the U.S. continue to rise. The Fourth Annual U.S. Cost of Data Breach Study (“Study”) found that the average cost of a data breach has risen to $202 per customer record lost or stolen, up from $138 per customer record lost of stolen in 2005, the first year that the study was conducted. According to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, since 2005, more than 250 million customer records containing confidential personal information have been lost or stolen.