The study examined actual costs incurred by 28 Indian firms in 11 sectors after they experienced loss or theft of protected personal data and had to notify breach victims and/or regulators as required by laws and business contracts.

"With internal threats emerging as one of the major causes for data breach incidents in India, the need to deploy a holistic approach to security has become a business imperative," Symantec Managing Director (Sales-India and SAARC) Anand Naik told PTI.

While technology and intelligence is integral to managing risks, training employees about various security threats and how they can help prevent data loss should also be incorporated into the risk management plans, he said.

The number of breached records per incident in 2012 ranged from about 4,500 to more than 95,000. The average number of breached records was 26,586.

The study found that customers abandon companies at a higher rate following the data breach and the customer churn following a data breach increased from 2.1 per cent in 2011 to 2.7 per cent in 2012.

Certain industries like financial services, research and technology and communications are more susceptible to customer churn, which causes their data breach costs to be higher than the average, it added.

For organizations, lost business costs (including loss of customers, increased customer acquisition activities, reputation losses and diminished goodwill) increased from 1.46 crore in 2012 to 1.53 crore in 2011.

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