India's data breach average cost rises to record Rs 220 million in 2025: IBM Report

New Delhi [India], August 8 : The average organizational cost of a data breach in India has climbed to an all-time high of Rs 220 million in 2025, marking a 13 per cent increase from Rs 195 million recorded in 2024, according to the latest Cost of a Data Breach Report released by IBM.

The report revealed that globally, the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) is outpacing the development of AI security and governance frameworks.

While AI-related breaches remain a small portion of the cases studied, this is the first time the report has examined security, governance, and access controls for AI, highlighting that AI has already become a high-value target for attackers.

In India, nearly 60 per cent of organizations that experienced a breach either lack an AI governance policy or are still in the process of developing one. Among those with governance policies in place, only 34 per cent are actually using AI governance technology.

The report also flagged the growing risk from "Shadow AI", the use of AI tools and applications without oversight from the organization's IT department.

Shadow AI emerged as one of the top three cost drivers of breaches in India, adding an average of Rs 17.9 million to breach costs. Despite this, only 42 per cent of organizations have policies to manage AI usage or detect shadow AI activity.

The report mentioned that Phishing remained the leading cause of breaches in India, accounting for 18 per cent of cases, followed by third-party vendor and supply chain compromises at 17 per cent, and vulnerability exploitation at 13 per cent.

The average breach lifecycle in India, the time taken to identify, contain, and restore services, dropped to 263 days in 2025, which is 15 days shorter than in 2024, suggesting improved detection and containment efforts.

The research sector faced the highest data breach costs in India at an average of Rs 289 million, closely followed by the transportation industry at Rs 288 million. The industrial sector, which topped the list in 2024, recorded an average cost of Rs 264 million this year.

The report findings highlighted that the use of AI and security automation could cut breach costs by more than half. However, 73 per cent of Indian organizations surveyed reported limited or no use of such technology, despite the proven financial benefits.

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