Earlier this year, the Ponemon Institute released a study (“Five Countries: Cost of Data Breach”), and the results paint a dichotomous picture of security and loss among counties.

All participating companies experienced one or more data breach incidents over the past year. The companies were based in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Australia.

Right off the bat, one thing stands out. The total cost of a data breach in the US is off the charts ($6.75 million) compared to the study average of $3.55 million. Similarly, the US stands alone in the “lost business cost” results. It is the only one of the five countries above the average of $1.6 million. The US comes in at $4.47 million while its next closest data point is Germany at $1.19 million.

One immediate question is: why? The root cause of these breaches may be surprising (or maybe not!), but the US had the smallest percentage in the “malicious or criminal attack” category yet the highest in the “system glitch” category and second highest in “negligence” (topped only by the UK).

With so many compliance standards and rules regarding data security, where is the kink? Are things changing too quickly? Is there a general lack of understanding? Is there a false sense of security among C-level executives? Let us know what you think.

And here’s hoping you never meet the requirements to participate in next year’s study.