In South Africa, stolen or compromised credentials is the most prevalent initial attack vector, representing 17% of breaches, said IT company IBM in its '2024 Cost of a Data Breach' report.

The average cost of a data breach in South Africa reached R53.1-million this year and breaches grow more disruptive and increase demands on cybersecurity teams.

However, there was an increase in the number of organisations, at 78%, deploying security AI and automation across their security operation centres.

When these technologies were used extensively, local organisations incurred an average R19-million less in breach costs, compared to those without security AI and automation deployments, IBM highlights.

Additionally, organisations that employed security AI and automation extensively detected and contained an incident on average 88 days faster than companies not using these technologies.

The top three factors that increased breach costs for local organisations were security system complexity, security skills shortage and noncompliance with regulations, the report notes.

Meanwhile, stolen or compromised credentials was the most common initial attack vector, with an average total cost of R56-million per breach. This was followed by phishing at 12% of cases, with an average total cost of R56.31-million per breach.

Business email compromise was the most expensive entry point, at an average total cost of R63-million and representing 10% of breaches studied, IBM says.

According to the report, 49% of breaches involved data stored across multiple environments including public cloud, private cloud and on-premises. These breaches were also expensive, at R59-million on average and took the longest to identify and contain at 263 days.

Further, organisations studied needed an average of 227 days to identify and contain incidents, which is 31 days below the global average for the data breach lifecycle at 258 days, IBM adds.

In terms of industries impacted in South Africa, financial services participants saw the costliest breaches across industries with average costs reaching R75.31-million per breach, followed by the industrial sector at R67.26-million and hospitality at R61.76-million.

“South African organisations are facing cyber threats and data breaches at an exponential rate, which highlights the urgent need for robust cyber security measures. As the complexity and frequency of these threats continue to grow, deploying AI-driven security solutions becomes crucial in safeguarding our national digital infrastructure,” says IBM South Africa GM and technology leader Ria Pinto.

“AI-driven security solutions can support the detection and mitigation of risks more efficiently. They are also critical in fortifying the defences of our organisations to help ensure business resiliency and empower organisations to navigate the evolving cyber landscape securely and confidently,” she says.