CASE FILE // PC-2026-04
Status: Open
Filing Number 00.00.01
PHISHINGCOST.COM
An incident cost field report.
Filing 03.00.00Field 27 APR 2026Classification PublicStatus Open

Phishing Cost by Industry Sector

Average breach cost peaks at $7.42M (healthcare), the highest sector for the 14th consecutive year, with financial services next at $5.56M (IBM 2025). The variance is driven by data sensitivity, regulatory weight, and the value of operational continuity.

Exhibit A

Cost-by-industry summary

IBM 2025
CodeIndustryAvg breachPer recordTop vector
I-01Healthcare / Life Sciences$7.42M$408BEC + ransomware via phishing
I-02Financial Services$5.56M$295BEC, credential-harvest
I-03Pharmaceutical$4.61M$232Spear-phish on R&D
I-04Energy / Utilities$4.83M$209BEC, OT-pivot phishing
I-05Technology / SaaS$4.79M$195Spear-phish + token theft
I-06Manufacturing / Industrial$5.08M$168BEC + invoice fraud
I-07Retail / E-commerce$3.48M$155Credential-harvest
I-08Government / Public Sector$2.86M$165Vishing + spear-phish
I-09Education$3.65M$142Bulk + smishing
I-10Professional Services$5.08M$178BEC, wire fraud

Healthcare ($7.42M), financial services ($5.56M), energy ($4.83M), technology ($4.79M), pharmaceuticals ($4.61M), and public sector ($2.86M) average-breach figures are IBM Cost of a Data Breach 2025 sector averages. Manufacturing, retail, education, and professional-services averages, and all per-record liabilities, are this model's sector estimates weighted from the published industry spread; treat them as planning ranges, not verbatim report values. Vector designations cross-checked against APWG 2025 attack-share table and Verizon DBIR 2025 industry sections.[IBM 2025, APWG 2025, Verizon DBIR 2025]

Sector I-01

Healthcare / Life Sciences

HIGHEST
Avg breach cost
$7.42M
Per record $408
Regulatory frame

HIPAA, OCR, state notification

Highest cost industry 14 years running. Clinical disruption is a patient-safety event, not just a financial one.

Dominant attack vector

BEC + ransomware via phishing

Sector I-02

Financial Services

MOST TARGETED
Avg breach cost
$5.56M
Per record $295
Regulatory frame

GDPR, GLBA, NYDFS, FFIEC, FINRA

23.5% of all phishing volume per APWG 2025. Wire-fraud loss recovery rate sits below 30%.

Dominant attack vector

BEC, credential-harvest

Sector I-03

Pharmaceutical

Avg breach cost
$4.61M
Per record $232
Regulatory frame

FDA, GxP, GDPR

IP theft drives the headline cost. Counterfeit-supply-chain disclosures add reputational drag.

Dominant attack vector

Spear-phish on R&D

Sector I-04

Energy / Utilities

Avg breach cost
$4.83M
Per record $209
Regulatory frame

TSA, NERC CIP, EU NIS2

Operational technology pivots from IT compromise raise CISA reporting exposure to 8 hours.

Dominant attack vector

BEC, OT-pivot phishing

Sector I-05

Technology / SaaS

Avg breach cost
$4.79M
Per record $195
Regulatory frame

SOC 2, GDPR, state law

Customer-data multi-tenancy means a single phish can cascade across the customer base. The 2024 Snowflake-customer wave is illustrative.

Dominant attack vector

Spear-phish + token theft

Sector I-06

Manufacturing / Industrial

Avg breach cost
$5.08M
Per record $168
Regulatory frame

ITAR, CMMC, GDPR

Long supplier chains mean BEC succeeds across many low-trust hand-offs. Production downtime cost dominates the disruption line.

Dominant attack vector

BEC + invoice fraud

Sector I-07

Retail / E-commerce

Avg breach cost
$3.48M
Per record $155
Regulatory frame

PCI-DSS, GDPR, state law

Cardholder data drives PCI fines. Customer-trust impact peaks in seasonal-revenue exposure.

Dominant attack vector

Credential-harvest

Sector I-08

Government / Public Sector

Avg breach cost
$2.86M
Per record $165
Regulatory frame

FISMA, state, FOIA

Lowest direct cost of any major sector, though it rose from $2.55M in 2024 even as the global average fell. Cleanup spans contractor ecosystems. The 2023 LA Housing Authority incident is representative.

Dominant attack vector

Vishing + spear-phish

Sector I-09

Education

Avg breach cost
$3.65M
Per record $142
Regulatory frame

FERPA, state law, GDPR

High user count, low per-record cost. Student-data disclosure carries long-tail reputational risk for institutions.

Dominant attack vector

Bulk + smishing

Sector I-10

Professional Services

Avg breach cost
$5.08M
Per record $178
Regulatory frame

Bar / accounting body rules

Law and accounting firms hold privileged client material. Confidentiality breach is a malpractice exposure as much as a regulatory one.

Dominant attack vector

BEC, wire fraud

Annex SMB

The SMB phishing cost profile

HIGH-CASUALTY
$3.31M
Average breach cost, under 500 employees
[IBM 2023, last org-size split]
60%
Closure within 6 months of incident
[National Cyber Security Alliance]
68%
Breaches that start with one untrained employee
[Verizon DBIR 2025]

Companies under 500 employees face a different incident profile. Per-record cost is roughly the same, but the absolute numerator is unrecoverable from cash flow. A single BEC wire of $254,000 (the median for 25 to 299-employee firms) is often a going-concern event. Insurance retention sits at the same dollar figure that would close the company. SMB defence economics favour heavy investment in the cheapest controls (MFA, DMARC, monthly simulated phish) ahead of more expensive layered tooling.

Updated 2026-04-27