$11.5 Million: The True Cost of a Data Breach in the US

A new report from IBM and Ponemon Institute puts the average cost of a data breach in the US at $11.5 million, more than twice the global figure of $4.99 million.

The study analyzed 602 organizations that experienced breaches between March 2025 and February 2026 and found that the majority of costs were due to detection, escalation, and lost business, accounting for 63% of the global average or around $3.18 million.

IBM also reported a significant increase in AI-enabled attacks, with one in four malicious breaches now using artificial intelligence as a tool, resulting in an average cost of around $6 million, roughly $1 million above the global mean.