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Customer Personal Data Exposed in 80% of Breaches Analyzed; AI and Automation Significantly Reduce Costs CAMBRIDGE, Mass., July 29, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM Security (NYSE: IBM) announced today the results of a global study examining the financial impact of data breaches, revealing that these incidents cost companies studied $3.86 million per breach on average, and that compromised employee accounts were the most expensive root cause. Based on in-depth analysis of data breaches experienced by over 500 organizations worldwide, 80% of these incidents resulted in the exposure of customers' personally identifiable information (PII). Out of all types of data exposed in these breaches, customer PII was also the costliest to businesses studied. As companies are increasingly accessing sensitive data via new remote work and cloud-based business operations, the report sheds light on the financial losses that organizations can suffer if this data is compromised. A separate IBM study found that over half of surveyed employees new to working from home due to the pandemic have not been provided with new guidelines on how to handle customer PII, despite the changing risk models associated with this shift. Sponsored by IBM Security and conducted by the Ponemon Institute, the 2020 Cost of a Data Breach Report is based on in-depth interviews with more than 3,200 security professional in organizations that suffered a data breach over the past year.1 Some of the top findings from this year's report include: Smart Tech Slashes Breach Costs in Half: Companies studied who had fully deployed security automation technologies (which leverage AI, analytics and automated orchestration to identify and respond to security events) experienced less than half the data breach costs compared to those who didn't have these tools deployed – $2.45 million vs. $6.03 million on average. Paying a Premium for Compromised Credentials: In incidents where attackers accessed corporate networks through the use of stolen or compromised credentials, studied businesses saw nearly $1 million higher data breach costs compared to the global average – reaching $4.77 million per data breach. Exploiting third-party vulnerabilities was the second costliest root cause of malicious breaches ($4.5 million) for this group.    Mega Breach2 Costs Soar by the Millions: Breaches wherein over 50 million records were compromised saw costs jump to $392 million from $388 million the previous year. Breaches where 40 to 50 million records were exposed cost studied companies $364 million on average, a cost increase of $19 million compared to the 2019 report. Nation State Attacks – The Most Damaging Breaches: Data breaches believed to originate from nation state attacks were the costliest, compared to other threat actors examined in the report. State-sponsored attacks averaged $4.43 million in data breach costs, surpassing both financially motivated cybercriminals and hacktivists. "When it comes to businesses' ability to mitigate the impact of a data breach, we're beginning to see a clear advantage held by companies that have invested in automated technologies," said Wendi Whitmore, Vice President, IBM X-Force Threat Intelligence. "At a time when businesses are expanding their digital footprint at an accelerated pace and the security industry's talent shortage persists, teams can be overwhelmed securing more devices, systems and data. Security automation can help resolve this burden, not only supporting a faster breach response but a more cost-efficient one as well." Employee Credentials and Misconfigured Clouds ­– Attackers' Entry Point of Choice Stolen or compromised credentials and cloud misconfigurations were the most common causes of a malicious breach for companies in the report, representing nearly 40% of malicious incidents. With over 8.5 billion records exposed in 2019, and attackers using previously exposed emails and passwords in one out of five breaches studied, businesses should rethink their security strategy via the adoption of a zero-trust approach – reexamining how they authenticate users and the extent of access users are granted. Similarly, companies' struggle with security complexity – a top breach cost factor – is likely contributing to cloud misconfigurations becoming a growing security challenge. The 2020 report revealed that attackers used cloud misconfigurations to breach networks nearly 20% of the time, increasing breach costs by more than half a million dollars to $4.41 million on average – making it the third most expensive initial infection vector examined in the report. State Sponsored Attacks Strike HeaviestDespite representing just 13% of malicious breaches studied, state-sponsored threat actors were the most damaging type of adversary according to the 2020 report, suggesting that financially motivated attacks (53%) don't necessarily translate into higher financial losses for businesses. The highly tactical nature, longevity and stealth maneuvers of state-backed attacks, as well as the high value data targeted, often result in a more extensive compromise of victim environments, increasing breach costs to an average of $4.43 million. In fact, the respondents in the Middle East, a region that historically experiences a higher proportion of state-sponsored attacks compared to other parts of the world3, saw over 9% yearly rise in their average breach cost, incurring the second highest average breach cost ($6.52 million) amongst the 17 regions studied. Similarly, businesses studied in the energy sector, one of the most frequently targeted industries by nation states, experienced a 14% increase in breach costs year over year, averaging $6.39 million. Advanced Security Technologies Prove Smart for Business The report highlights the growing divide in breach costs between businesses implementing advanced security technologies and those lagging behind, revealing a cost-saving difference of $3.58 million for studied companies with fully deployed security automation versus those that have yet to deploy this type of technology. The cost gap has grown by $2 million, from a difference of $1.55 million in 2018. Companies in the study with fully deployed security automation also reported a significantly shorter response time to breaches, another key factor shown to reduce breach costs in the analysis. The report found that AI, machine learning, analytics and other forms of security automation enabled companies to respond to breaches over 27% faster on average, than companies that have yet to deploy security automation – the latter of which require on average 74 additional days to identify and contain a breach. Incident response (IR) preparedness also continues to heavily influence the financial aftermath of a breach. According to the report, companies with neither an IR team nor testing of IR plans experience $5.29 million in average breach costs, whereas companies that have both an IR team and use tabletop exercises or simulations to test IR plans experience $2 million less in breach costs – reaffirming that preparedness and readiness yield a significant ROI in cybersecurity. Some additional findings from this year's report include: Remote Work Risk Will Have a Cost: With hybrid work models creating less controlled environments, the report found that 70% of companies studied that adopted telework amid the pandemic expect it will exacerbate data breach costs. CISOs Faulted for Breaches, Despite Limited Decision-Making Power: Forty-six percent of respondents said the CISO/CSO is ultimately held responsible for the breach, despite only 27% stating the CISO/CSO is the security policy and technology decision-maker. The report found that appointing a CISO was associated with $145,000 cost savings versus the average cost of a breach. Majority of Cyber Insured Businesses Use Claims for Third Party Fees: The report found that breaches at studied organizations with cyber insurance cost on average nearly $200,000 less than the global average of $3.86 million. In fact, of these organizations that used their cyber insurance, 51% applied it to cover third-party consulting fees and legal services, while 36% of organizations used it for victim restitution costs. Only 10% used claims to cover the cost of ransomware or extortion. Regional & Industry Insights: While studied companies in the U.S. continued to experience the highest data breach costs in the world, at $8.64 million on average, those studied in Scandinavia experienced the biggest year over year increase in breach costs, observing a nearly 13% rise. Responding healthcare companies continued to incur the highest average breach costs at $7.13 million — an over 10% increase compared to the 2019 study. About the StudyThe annual Cost of a Data Breach Report is based on in-depth analysis of real-world data breaches experienced by over 500 organizations worldwide taking place between August 2019 and April 2020, taking into account hundreds of cost factors including legal, regulatory and technical activities to loss of brand equity, customers, and employee productivity. To download a copy of the 2020 Cost of a Data Breach Report, please visit: ibm.com/databreach Sign up for the 2020 Cost of a Data Breach Report webinar on Wednesday, August 12, 2020 at 11:00 a.m. ET here: https://ibm.biz/BdqhMf About IBM SecurityIBM Security offers one of the most advanced and integrated portfolios of enterprise security products and services. The portfolio, supported by world-renowned IBM X-Force® research, enables organizations to effectively manage risk and defend against emerging threats. IBM operates one of the world's broadest security research, development and delivery organizations, monitors 70 billion security events per day in more than 130 countries, and has been granted more than 10,000 security patents worldwide. For more information, please check www.ibm.com/security, follow @IBMSecurity on Twitter or visit the IBM Security Intelligence blog. 1 Report analyzes data breaches occurring between August 2019 and April 2020. Limitations of the report's methodology can be found in the report.2 The 2020 Cost of a Data Breach Report examines the cost of a mega breach, namely breaches involving the loss or theft of one million records or more, based on a separate analysis of a specific sample.3 According to the IBM 2020 X-Force Threat Intelligence Index: https://ibm.biz/downloadxforcethreatindex Press Contact:IBM Security Media RelationsGeorgia Prassinosgprassinos@ibm.com (571) 365-6065 SOURCE IBM

IBM Maximo for Civil Infrastructure is designed to assist organizations in better managing, monitoring and maintaining their infrastructure assets. ARMONK, NY Oct. 14, 2020 -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced new capabilities in IBM Maximo for Civil Infrastructure to help prolong the lifespan of aging bridges, tunnels, highways, and railways. New enhancements include the ability to deploy on Red Hat OpenShift for hybrid cloud environments, as well as new AI and 3D model annotation tools that can provide deep industry and task-specific insights to support engineers. By helping facilitate off-site inspections, advanced analytics and predictive maintenance, IBM Maximo for Civil Infrastructure is designed to assist organizations in better managing, monitoring and maintaining their infrastructure assets. In the United States roughly $2 trillion in infrastructure repairs were unfunded in 2015, according to the 2017 American Society of Civil Engineers Infrastructure Report Card. And around the world, the prevalence of aging infrastructure threatens the continuity of day-to-day life for citizens worldwide. Owners, operators and engineers need to be able to improve their ability to decide where, when and how to address infrastructure issues with critical assets that must endure for generations. [embedded content] IBM Maximo for Civil Infrastructure can consolidate numerous sources of data including maintenance and design details; near real-time IoT data generated from sensors; wearables from workers; stationary cameras and drones and weather data from The Weather Company, to identify and measure the impact of damage such as cracks, rust and corrosion, as well as displacement vibrations and stress. These insights can help organizations more proactively manage and prioritize infrastructure repair and reduce the need for time-intensive manual inspections and unnecessary costs. “Tools like AI, predictive maintenance, drones and hybrid cloud will play an important role in meeting the challenge of rising infrastructure costs, and helping these vital structures endure for future generations,” said Bjarne Jørgensen, Executive Director, Asset Management at Sund and Baelt. “These solutions can help determine the exact need for maintenance in near real-time to assist organizations in extending the lifetime of structures.” IBM Maximo for Civil Infrastructure incorporates AI visual recognition tools developed by IBM Research to allow civil engineers to make structures come alive using 3D modeling. Capabilities like Maximo Visual Inspection can make it easier to identify defects, their root-cause, and place them in the context of the greater structure to perform rapid assessments to better prioritize maintenance decisions that target critical repairs. These tools can be increasingly important for future engineers as skills availability may be a challenge. "Infrastructure maintenance is a problem that’s being compounded from all sides: Bridges are getting older, payloads are getting larger, and the necessary preventive actions and maintenance are often postponed due to lack of funding,” Jørgensen added. "With Maximo for Civil Infrastructure, IBM is introducing a solution that addresses the problem from all sides, using IoT and AI technology to administer more proactive repairs, maintain invaluable institutional and engineering knowledge, and better prioritize resources.” “Maximo for Civil Infrastructure was developed with input from some of the largest operators of infrastructure in the world so that IBM’s powerful technology across AI and IoT is carefully adapted to the unique needs of civil engineers,” said Joe Berti, VP of AI Applications at IBM. “With these tools we believe civil engineers will be able to innovate and improve the process of monitoring, maintaining and preserving important structures around the world.” IBM Maximo for Civil Infrastructure provides the following new capabilities, in addition to the core offerings available as part of the IBM Maximo Application Suite. Maximo Application Suite licensing and Open Shift deployment: With a single license, customers can now deploy asset management, sensor integration, advanced data analytics including AI functionality and visual analytic capability. Capabilities including Monitor and Health can be deployed now on RedHat Open Shift, which allows customers to more quickly deploy, manage and scale their hybrid cloud deployments with ease. Defect Management: A new user interface that records defect information, adds multi-variable defect rankings, attaches pictures, and stores history for defects. Structural defects do not exist in isolation, they can affect everything they touch and the integrity of the overall structure. By comparing detected defects against work history, sensor data, weather and traffic data and more, AI can help engineers better identify root causes and patterns that indicate a defect may reoccur.  Improved 3D Visualization: Most serious defects are located within the structure and are not necessarily visible from the outside. However, new tools within the Maximo BIM viewer plugin allow users to add annotations to their standard 3D models, giving users access to a 3D representation of an asset, for example a pillar or beam, where all the defects have been annotated on that asset.  Asset Loader Improvements: While every piece of civil infrastructure is unique, many share common hierarchies of assets, and some organizations have hundreds or even thousands of similar bridges that need to be defined in the asset management system. To streamline the process, a new tool to better manage import and export of an asset hierarchy, including a new UI to manage imports and exports and the process of selecting files, is now available.  IBM Maximo for Civil Infrastructure integrates 30 years of recognized industry-leading infrastructure asset management with best-in-class models from the world's premier infrastructure firms. It helps operators and engineers address one of the world's largest and most complex challenges — extending the lifespan of critical structures under frequently changing conditions. You can read more about how some of its capabilities were developed here. About IBM MaximoPowered by IBM's investments in artificial intelligence, fueled by IoT data, and built for hybrid cloud, The IBM Maximo Application Suite is extending its leadership as one of the most trusted enterprise asset management systems on the planet. And with new investments in remote monitoring, computer vision and AI-powered anomaly detection, it is poised to remain a leading solution for tomorrow's asset management challenges, empowering Operational Technology (OT) and Information Technology (IT) leaders with a comprehensive view into asset performance. For more information please visit: www.ibm.com/products/maximo. Media Contact:Holli HaswellIBM Director, External Relationshhaswell@us.ibm.com