Data Breaches Cost More in the U.S. Due to Breach Notification Laws and Legal Fees

If you are a U.S.-based company, a word to the wise: be sure to have a plan for mitigating and dealing with the fall out of a data breach. Why? Because according to a new report from the Ponemon Institute, data breaches cost more for U.S. companies than for other nations. In fact, the average cost of a data breach in the United States in 2009 was $204 per compromised customer record, in comparison with $177 in Germany, $119 in France, $114 in Australia and $98 in the United Kingdom.

According to the Ponemon Institute, the reason the United States is highest in comparison with the four other countries is because the United States has the toughest data-breach notification laws, which incurs higher legal and other costs. Check out this Dark Reading article for more information.