The average cost of a data breach has grown to US $4 million, according to a study by IBM Security and the Ponemon Institute. That’s a hefty jump compared with last year’s $3.79 million, and it represents an increase of almost 30 percent since 2013. Incident forensics, communications, legal expenditures and regulatory mandates account for the bulk of that cost. Having an incident response team can reduce the cost by nearly $400,000 on average, the study’s authors said.”]