Costs incurred by businesses across Southeast Asia due to data breaches reached a record high in 2026, jumping 12 percent to an average of $4.12 million, according to IBM's 2026 Cost of a Data Breach Report. The increase was driven partly by artificial intelligence making cyberattacks cheaper and faster to carry out, said IBM Asean general manager Catherine Lian.

Financial services firms in the region incurred the highest average breach costs at $6.53 million, followed by industrial organizations at $5.99 million and communications firms at $4.28 million. The findings were based on data from 26 organizations across the Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.

Organizations that extensively used AI and security automation reported a lower average breach cost of $3.66 million compared with $4.86 million among those without these tools, and contained breaches 123 days faster. Nearly three in four organizations in the region said they planned to increase investments in security tools and governance following a breach, Inquirer business (PH) reports.