India's Data Breach Cost Hits Record High

The cost of data breaches in India has reached an all-time high, according to a recent report by IBM. The average organisational cost of a data breach in India soared to Rs 25.5 crore in 2026, marking a 16% increase from the previous year's Rs 22 crore.

This significant jump is coupled with a rise in the number of compromised records, with an average of 39,500 records affected in 2026 compared to 38,200 in 2025. The report highlights that organisations without AI and automation in their security operations bear the brunt of this financial loss, paying an average of Rs 31.6 crore per breach.

IBM's Gaurav Agarwal warns that artificial intelligence adoption is enabling cyber threats to evolve rapidly. He stresses the importance of embedding AI with agentic capabilities across the full security lifecycle, from detection and analysis to prioritisation and remediation.