Data breaches ding reputation, brand.

• Position: STUDY - Survey

Organizations that experience a data breach spend a year or more restoring their reputation after the incident, according to a new Ponemon Institute study.

The survey of 843 executives found that an organization's brand value fell 17% to 31% after a breach depending on the type of information lost. Organizations polled estimated the economic value of their brand to be anywhere from $1 million to greater than $10 billion, with an average of $1.5 billion.

Eighty-two percent of respondents said their organization had experienced a breach involving sensitive or confidential information.

Depending on what type of data is stolen, on average, organizations lost between $184 million to more than $330 million in the value of their brand, according to the survey, sponsored by Experian Data Breach Resolution.

More than 53% of respondents said the exposures had a "moderate" impact on their...