Cost of an Attack

The cost of a data breach is hotly debated. Ponemon Institute in 2011 released one report claiming the cost of a breach at $214 per stolen record, while another report estimated the median annual cost of a cyber attack at $3.8M.

But the infamous Sony Playstation web breach in 2011 that resulted in Sony closing down the network for 23 days to fix the problem provides some real and compelling data about the actual cost of an attack.

A successful data breach damages a victim company in three key areas. First there is the theft of the data, in Sony’s case over 100 million records. The second area is the effect on Sony’s revenue that totaled $171M in direct costs. But the largest and most damaging effect is the 55 class action lawsuits that will cost Sony potentially billions .