Each customer record containing sensitive and confidential information that was lost or stolen during a data breach ended up costing the firm responsible an average of $148 (£114) in 2017, up 4.8 per cent year-on-year. When considering the scope of most data breaches, the average incident of this kind typically costs companies $3.86m, up 6.4 per cent on the previous year.

These figures come from Tyntecs new whitepaper examining the changing face of cybersecurity and the growing need for companies with customer-facing web access to implement multifactor authentication (MFA) as a way of reducing the risk of data breaches.

In The Essential Guide to Strong Customer Authentication, Tyntec explores how high-profile customer information breaches have emphasised the need for secure data practices, and how two-factor authentication and its variants dramatically increase security compared to simply passwords.

As well as outlining the need for MFA in the modern cybersecurity landscape, the whitepaper breaks down the different types that firms can employ and their diverse advantages and drawbacks, as well as providing key steps for companies looking to design strong customer authentication.

The Essential Guide to Strong Customer Authentication can be downloaded for free here.