Security-Breach Costs Climb 7% to $7.2 Million per Incident

The cost to businesses of exposing data such as Social Security and credit-card numbers climbed 7 percent last year to an average of $7.2 million per incident, according to a study of companies that experienced breaches.

The most expensive incident cost an unidentified company $35.3 million, an increase of 15 percent from the costliest breach a year earlier, according to a report released today by Ponemon Institute LLC, an information security research group. The name of the company was withheld because of the sensitivity of the breach. The report was sponsored by Symantec Corp., the world’s largest maker of security software.