India's Data Breach Costs Hit Record ₹25.5 Crore in 2026 as AI-Driven Attacks Surge: IBM

Mumbai: The average cost of a data breach in India climbed to a record ₹25.5 crore in 2026, up 15.9 per cent from ₹22 crore the previous year, according to IBM's 2026 Cost of a Data Breach Report.

The report found that 26 per cent of malicious breaches in India involved AI-generated attacks, reflecting the growing use of artificial intelligence to automate and scale cyberattacks. The average breach also grew in scale, exposing nearly 39,500 records compared with 38,200 in 2025. The financial services sector was hit hardest, with average breach costs of ₹40.9 crore.

Organisations without AI and security automation paid significantly more per breach, averaging ₹31.6 crore, compared with ₹21.3 crore for those with extensive AI deployment and ₹23.1 crore for limited adopters. Yet only 32 per cent of Indian organisations have extensively implemented AI-driven security tools, the report found.

IBM India & South Asia Vice President Gaurav Agarwal said India's accelerating AI adoption was creating opportunities for innovation while also enabling cyber threats to evolve rapidly, and called for AI to be embedded across the full security lifecycle rather than limited to detection alone.