Calculating the Cost of Breach

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Calculating the

Cost of a Breach

Risky security practices can have costly consequences

In 2023, data breach costs rose to $4.45 million, a 15% increase over three years and the highest average total cost in the history of the report.
SOURCE: IBM Cost of a Breach, 2023

Calculate Your Cost

With the Arctic Wolf Cost of a Breach Calculator, you’ll be able to estimate how your organization may be affected by a cyber incident so you’re prepared for even your worst day.
  • 1
    Organization Industry

    Which industry is your organization in?

    Which country is your organization in?

  • 2
    Organization Size
  • 3
    Organization Revenue
    $
  • 4
    Breach Scenario

    What type of incident occured?

    What's the root cause?

  • 5
    Finish
    You're almost there!

    Confirm your selections before calculating the cost of the breach.

    Organization Industry

    Construction

    Organization Size

    3,000

    Annual Revenue

    $47,500,000

    Breach Scenario

    Ransomware via External Vulnerability as the root cause

  • 6
    View Results

    Based on our calculations, this breach could cost you at least:

    Estimated Total
    How we calculated your results:
    Cost Comparison Chart
    Email My Results
View Results
Your Selection

Attack Type:Ransomware

$345,670

Estimated Total
How we calculated your results:
Your Selection

Attack Type:Business Email Compromise

$345,670

Estimated Total
How we calculated your results:
Your Selection

Attack Type:Data Breach

$345,670

Estimated Total
How we calculated your results:
Details on Results
Email My Results

Following an incident, what kind of costs should I expect to see?

As cyber attacks continue to evolve, the damage they create continues to grow. There are the direct costs and then there are the hidden, unexpected costs of a data breach.

Direct Costs:

Lost business, reputation and operational disruption

Ransom payments

Stolen funds

Hidden Costs:

Digital forensics

Public relations

Customer notifications

Credit monitoring

Legal fees

The job of IT and security professionals is to keep these costs from ever occurring. But what if the nightmare scenario comes true? Is your organization prepared to weather the storm and shoulder the full, total cost of a data breach? How can you even begin to estimate what a data breach could cost you?

Context on the Calculations

As you review your custom breach scenario, it’s important to remember these are not theoretical, pie-in-the-sky financial guesses.

Instead, every cost computation is based on real expenses incurred by thousands of peer organizations in cybersecurity incidents of their own, as tracked through publicly available insurer reports and proprietary Arctic Wolf data. 

Still, this scenario is not a guarantee — nobody knows for sure what cyber criminals are going to do next.

- - - - - - -

It could easily be this bad.

It could certainly be worse.

1. Ransomware

The amount of money an organization pays to a ransomware attacker to regain access to systems and data.
Should you decide to pay, proper negotiation via a full-service incident response company like Arctic Wolf can ensure the lowest ransom and the full return or decryption of your data. Leveraging a security operations partner like Arctic Wolf also cuts down time from identification to negotiation to remediation.
View an example
Household names like Colonial Pipeline and USCF Medical School have paid millions to ransomware attackers. Possibly the largest publicly-known payment was CNA Financial — they spent $40 million to restore their systems.
For detailed results please complete the Cost of a Breach Calculator

Your Estimated Cost:

$35,000

  What's this? This is the estimated value we've calculated based on your inputs into the Arctic Wolf Data Breach Calculator above.

Based on your selection of 'Data Breach' as the breach scenario, there is no direct cost for a Ransomware payment.

Based on your selection of 'BEC Attack' as the breach scenario, there is no direct cost for a Ransomware payment.

2. BEC Direct Loss

Funds misdirected to an attacker in a business email compromise (BEC) incident.
Arctic Wolf’s Security Operations Warranty provides up to $1,000,000 in financial assistance for costs related to a data breach, a portion of which can be put toward losses from BEC. See Arctic Wolf in action with our incident response timeline based on a real-world business email compromise incident.
View an example

The FBI reports that Business Email Compromise attacks have cost over $43 billion dollars since 2016.Source: VentureBeat.com

For detailed results please complete the Cost of a Breach Calculator

Your Estimated Cost:

$35,000

  What's this? This is the estimated value we've calculated based on your inputs into the Arctic Wolf Data Breach Calculator above.

Based on your selection of 'Data Breach' as the breach scenario, there are no direct costs for a BEC attack.

Based on your selection of 'Ransomware' as the breach scenario, there are no direct costs for a BEC attack.

3. Forensics

The cost of identification, remediation, and investigation from the incident.

A full-service incident response service like Arctic Wolf can aid in the investigation, collection, preservation, and recovery of data through expert forensics investigations.
For detailed results please complete the Cost of a Breach Calculator

Your Estimated Cost:

$35,000

  What's this? This is the estimated value we've calculated based on your inputs into the Arctic Wolf Data Breach Calculator above.

4. Public Relations

The cost of hiring a PR or crisis response firm to manage reputational fallout stemming from a breach.
While contracting with a crisis response firm has associated costs, it has been shown to reduce the average cost of a data breach by over $130k.
For detailed results please complete the Cost of a Breach Calculator

Your Estimated Cost:

$35,000

  What's this? This is the estimated value we've calculated based on your inputs into the Arctic Wolf Data Breach Calculator above.

5. IR Counsel

The cost of hiring incident response (IR) counsel to manage legal risk resulting from a breach.
This data breach cost typically has the longest tail, with legal services needed for up to several years post-breach.
For detailed results please complete the Cost of a Breach Calculator

Your Estimated Cost:

$35,000

  What's this? This is the estimated value we've calculated based on your inputs into the Arctic Wolf Data Breach Calculator above.

6. Notification or Call Center

The cost of notifying customers regarding their data exposure.
Should you decide to pay, proper negotiation via a full-service incident response company like Arctic Wolf can ensure the lowest ransom and the full return or decryption of your data.
For detailed results please complete the Cost of a Breach Calculator

Your Estimated Cost:

$35,000

  What's this? This is the estimated value we've calculated based on your inputs into the Arctic Wolf Data Breach Calculator above.

7. Credit Monitoring

The cost of paying for credit monitoring for affected customers.
The costs of notifying affected customers and monitoring their credit are, on average, lower for a BEC incident than any other kind of data breach.
View an example
The Equifax data breach exposed personal information from 147 million people, and the settlement required Equifax to offer them complimentary credit monitoring.
For detailed results please complete the Cost of a Breach Calculator

Your Estimated Cost:

$35,000

  What's this? This is the estimated value we've calculated based on your inputs into the Arctic Wolf Data Breach Calculator above.

8. First-Party Costs

Direct costs to the organization, including lost business, lost reputation, and operational disruption.
Based on claims approved by insurers, these first-party costs are typically as large as all other costs combined.
View an example
Capital One spent $150 million on remediating its data breach — but analysts foresaw a $1 billion dollar revenue hit.
For detailed results please complete the Cost of a Breach Calculator

Your Estimated Total:

$35,000

  What's this? Based on your Data Breach Calculator inputs, this is the total estimated direct costs to the organization.
Calculating the Cost of a Breach: Avoid Cybersecurity Sticker Shock
Is your organization prepared to weather the storm and shoulder the full, total cost of a data breach?
Check out our webinar breaking down the cost factors and recommendations to keep your organization safe.
Watch On-Demand

Suffering From Security Sticker Shock?

Arctic Wolf can lower your cost of a data breach — or keep one from happening in the first place.
More Breach Details