Data breaches cost higher education and training organizations $3.7M on average in 2023

Higher Ed Dive

Natalie Schwartz

August 1, 2023

Dive Brief: 

• The average data breach in the higher education and training sector cost $3.7 million in 2023, according to an annual report from IBM.

• This marks a decline from 2022, when the average cost of a data breach for the higher education sector reached $3.9 million. IBM includes public and private colleges, as well as training and development companies in its count.

• The higher education sector had the 11th highest data breach costs out of 17 sectors IBM tracked. In contrast, the healthcare, financial and pharmaceutical industries were at the top end, with average costs of breaches ranging from $4.8 million to $10.9 million.

Dive Insight: 

IBM conducts a survey each year to assess how much data breaches cost organizations. This year, researchers studied 553 organizations in 16 countries and regions that fell victim to cyberattacks between March 2022 and March 2023.

The survey found that data breaches at higher education institutions typically cost less than the $4.5 million average reported across all industries in 2023. That represents a sectorwide increase of 2.3% over the year before and a 15.3% surge since 2020.

Still, the education sector is a frequent target.

Most recently, the mass attack of MOVEit, a widely used service to transfer large data files, ensnared colleges and higher education-related organizations.

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