Costs of a Website Breach High According to Forrester

According to some recent data by Forrester, the potential costs of a Web application breach add up quickly.  The research firm estimates that the cost of a security breach ranges from about $90 to $305 per compromised record.  And when you consider the expense of the forensic analysis of compromised systems, increased call center activity from upset customers, legal fees and regulatory fines, data breach disclosure notices sent to affected customers, as well as other business and customer losses, it's no surprise that news reports often detail incidents costing anywhere from $20 million to $4.5 billion.

And those estimates don’t count the other, indirect costs that result from shoddy Web application security such as:  the inability to conduct business during denial-of-service attacks, crashed applications, reduced performance, and the potential loss of intellectual property to competitors.

So take a few lessons from companies like Forever 21, TJMaxx, and Guess.com and be proactive about your Web security posture.

by
Jon Zucker, Product Management
JZucker@cenzic.com