Each year, IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach report functions like a mirror, reflecting the most urgent realities of the cybersecurity landscape. In 2025, that mirror revealed a troubling trend for U.S. organizations: breach costs are soaring, and new risk vectors are quietly multiplying.
How do we at Celerium turn these insights into action—for our customers, our partners, and the industry at large?
Let's examine the report’s top insights and explain how Celerium’s Data Breach Defender™ is purpose-built to meet these challenges head-on.
What the IBM 2025 Report Tells Us
IBM’s latest report analyzes data from 600 organizations across 17 industries and 16 countries. Here’s what stood out:
1. U.S. Breach Costs Reach an All-Time High
- The average breach cost in the U.S. is now $10.22 million, up 9.2% from last year.
- Regulatory fines, legal fees, and reputational damage remain key drivers.
- Sectors like healthcare and critical infrastructure are disproportionately impacted.
2. Containment Times Are Improving—But Still Too Slow
- The global average time to detect and contain a breach dropped to 241 days, down from 258 in 2024.
- But in healthcare, the lifecycle is still 279 days—more than five weeks longer than average.
3. Shadow IT Is Now a Top Three Cost Amplifier
- Organizations with high levels of shadow IT face $670K higher breach costs on average.
- Unauthorized tools and apps create backdoors that most organizations don’t even know exist.
These numbers reflect what’s happening in the trenches every day. And if you’re leading security in a high-risk, highly regulated sector, these are more than trends. They’re indicators of where you may be exposed.
Where Data Breach Defender™ Fits In
At Celerium, our focus is on building tools that support early detection, reduce response time, and lower breach-related costs. We developed Data Breach Defender to do exactly what IBM’s report suggests works: detect breaches early and contain them quickly.
Here’s how we’re addressing the report’s key takeaways:
•Internal Detection Over External Discovery
IBM found that organizations that discovered a breach internally saved nearly $900K compared to when attackers disclosed the breach. Data Breach Defender is built to empower internal teams with near real-time detection and actionable alerts—without invasive agents or performance hits.
•Speed Reduces Cost
Breaches contained in under 200 days average $3.87 million. Those that last longer average $5.01 million. That $1.1M difference is what we’re targeting. Our goal? Reduce mean time to detection from months to days.
•Combatting Shadow IT Risk
Data Breach Defender adds a layer of network threat visibility that many organizations lack, helping uncover suspicious activity that may point to unauthorized tools or unexpected data flows.
In his recent video brief, Celerium CISO Vince Crisler broke down the IBM report with sharp clarity. Below is an excerpt of his analysis, offering direct commentary from the cybersecurity front lines:
“The global average cost of a data breach dropped 9% to $4.44 million. But that global drop hides an important fact: in the U.S., costs hit an all-time high—$10.2 million, up 9% from last year.”
— Vince Crisler, CISO, Celerium
Vince emphasized one of the report’s clearest findings:
“The number one takeaway? Speed matters. The faster you detect and contain, the less it costs. IBM ties this directly to dollars—breaches under 200 days cost $1.1 million less than those over 200. That’s not theoretical. That’s financial reality.”
He also reinforced how internal detection significantly reduces damage:
“When a security team finds the breach, the average cost is about $4.18M. If an attacker discloses it? It jumps to $5.08M. That gap shows how essential internal monitoring is—and it’s exactly what we built Data Breach Defender to do.”
Finally, Vince highlighted why Celerium’s approach is different:
“We're not trying to shave weeks—we’re trying to shave months down to days. We’re deploying AI and machine learning against network traffic—without ever touching the content. And it’s working.”
A Time-Sensitive Opportunity for Healthcare Leaders
Given these findings, we’re offering a limited-time **No Cost Program and consultation to qualified organizations in healthcare This includes:
IBM’s 2025 report is clear: breach costs are rising, and speed is your most powerful defense.
At Celerium, we’re not just responding to the data. We’re designing solutions around it.
**Offer valid through December 31, 2025
