Organizations that experience data breaches are paying more than ever to recover from the incidents and retain customers once the events become public knowledge, according to a new research report.

In its third annual study into the financial impact of data breaches, Ponemon Institute reports the episodes are costing an average of $197 per lost or stolen customer record during 2007, a slight bump from the figure of $182 per exposed record that it tracked one year ago, and a significant gain over the estimate of $128 per record that the research firm published in its initial 2005 survey.

Based on interviews conducted with 35 organizations that experienced data incidents in the last year, the Ponemon study found the average total cost of the breaches rose to $6.3 million in 2007, compared to an average of $4.8 million in 2006.

The average number of records exposed in the breaches Ponemon studied was roughly 20,000 per incident, although among those organizations surveyed the incidents ranged from as few as 4,000 records to more than 125,000 records.

One of the issues driving the continued escalation of data breach remediation expenses, according to the research, is the estimated cost of lost business and so-called customer churn that results from notification of the episodes.

Ponemon said the impact of customer churn and the amount of money necessary to acquire new business grew to an average of $128 per misplaced or stolen record in 2007, roughly a 30 percent increase over the figure of $98 per record published in last year's study.

Among the other expenses facing organizations that suffer data incidents are monies spent to provide customer support and credit monitoring services to affected individuals, along with budgets allocated for advertising and marketing efforts aimed at repairing companies' public images.

However, while the cost of breaches has continued to rise, the research company contends that many organizations have improved their ability to react to the events.

Even those firms who have experienced repeated incidents seem to have woken up to the idea of planning ahead and trying to prepare for the situation, said Dr. Larry Ponemon, the research firm's founder and chairman.

"We're finding that organizations seem to be better prepared with response plans, especially those that have experienced more than one breach, which was more than half of the people we interviewed," Ponemon said. "Companies have found that some of the tactics they used several years ago to respond didn't work out like they had imagined, and they're trying to find the most effective ways to retain customers while driving down costs."

For instance, said Ponemon, many companies affected by breaches in prior years attempted to curry favor with their customers by handing out gift coupons for their products or services.