Protecting against damaging data breaches has become a critical component of enterprise IT departments, yet these costly incidents still occur with regularity across many different industries. The fallout from failing to deploy strong data security solutions can result in numerous financial losses for both organizations and clients. This fact was reinforced by two recently released reports concerning the state of cybersecurity across various sectors.

Javelin Strategy & Research's "2013 Data Breach Fraud Impact Report" found that data breaches have a concrete connection with rates of consumer fraud in the United States, as the two have become increasingly correlated over the last three years. In 2012, half of all reported fraud victims were also found to have suffered from a data breach. According to the report's estimates, a single incident could potentially result in consumers losing billions of dollars to fraud. Researchers implored businesses to leverage comprehensive data security practices to prevent these incidents from occurring. 

"Organizations can promote consumer confidence and loyalty by instituting better protections against the event of a data breach and by mitigating criminals' ability to use stolen data to defraud consumers," stated Al Pascual, senior analyst with Javelin Strategy & Research.

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Data breaches can cause just as much harm to organizations, according to a study conducted by the Ponemon Institute. Although the average total cost per breach dropped slightly to $5.4 million compared to the previous year, the cost per compromised record increased to $136. Organizations that faced rigid data security compliance guidelines such as healthcare facilities were found to have suffered breaches that cost 70 percent more than companies in less regulated industries.

The study also found that organizations that adhered to strong and holistic security practices were 20 percent less likely to experience a costly data breach. This led researchers to recommend that IT teams implement a comprehensive data security plan to protect sensitive information in various circumstances, including when stored on a computer, mobile device or while in transit over a network.