Data breaches cost UK firms an average of 47 GBP per record lost, it has been claimed.

ITPro.co.uk reports that a study carried out by the Ponemon Institute found that the average total loss for a firm that had suffered a data breach in the last year was 1.4 million GBP, with the highest figure being around 3.8 million GBP.

This equates to £47 per record, with the majority of the cost coming from lost business, it said. A figure which suggests firms might benefit from investing in IT security and business continuity planning.

It also found that the cost is even higher for financial institutions, with the average cost per record lost hitting 55 GBP.

Last week laptop firm Virtuity said it is to sell a range of computers which will automatically delete sensitive data if they are removed from a certain area.

However, firms employing such technology may want to ensure they have a disaster recovery system in place so they can restore lost data after an indecent.

A recent survey for Connect found that one in ten companies has lost important data as a result of a backup failure. The company has now developed a unique online backup service - http://www.totalrecall.co.uk – for SMEs to ensure they can survive any disaster.