AI can help UK businesses half data breach costs

This comes as the IBM’s annual Cost of a Data Breach Report, which analysed real-world data breaches from 553 global organisations between March 2022–March 2023, showed a decrease in the total average of a data breach in the UK from £3.8 million last year to £3.4 million this year.

Tech businesses and financial services were the industries most impacted by data breaches in the UK, causing average losses of £5.3 million and £4.9 million.

However, British businesses who utilised AI and automation were able to reduce their breach costs by an average of £1.6 million and contained the breach more efficiently, cutting back the average ‘breach lifecycle’ by 108 days.

Achi Lewis, Area VP EMEA for Absolute Software, commented: “Automation technology plays a significant role in bolstering an organisation’s security protections, and AI is the latest iteration of that, helping to analyse large patterns of data to help detect threats sooner. As AI technology evolves and continues to be adopted by businesses, it is important that there is also awareness about potential AI-powered threat types that come with its development.”

“With that, businesses must ensure that they have sufficient recovery measures in place for when an attack occurs, not just if, as the cost of recovery can take months or even years. AI can play a role in cutting down the breach lifecycle, as well as the use of self-healing technology that can help repair security systems after a breach and restore devices to a state where they can prevent reinfection and remain resilient.”

Less than a third of the surveyed organisations were said to be “extensively” deploying security AI and automation, while 37% had admitted they were yet to embrace these technologies.