India Sees Record-Breaking Data Breach Costs Amid Rising AI-Driven Threats

The average cost of a data breach in India has reached an all-time high of Rs. 25.5 crore, according to a recent report from IBM. This represents a 15.9% increase over last year and marks the highest recorded figure for India. The report also found that breaches are growing in scale, with an average of 39,500 records compromised per breach.

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly prevalent in cyber threats, with nearly 26% of malicious breaches being AI-generated. Organisations that extensively deployed AI and security automation experienced significantly lower breach costs and faster breach response times, while those with no AI paid the highest average cost.

Gaurav Agarwal, Vice President of Technology at IBM India & South Asia, noted that 'India's accelerating AI adoption is creating immense opportunities for innovation, but it is also enabling cyber threats to evolve rapidly.' He added that organisations must embed agentic capabilities across the full security lifecycle to keep pace with evolving threats.