Released this week by information and privacy firm the Ponemon Institute, the study found customers are more likely to jump ship if a breach occurs with an online retailer than if it is a financial institution.

The study found data breaches this year cost an average of US$182 per "compromised record", a 31 percent increase compared to the same period last year.

Dr Larry Ponemon, chairman of the Ponemon Institute said ultimately he was expecting costs to go down instead of up but figures relating to customer churn as a result of a data breach escalated these figures.

The study should concern CIOs, especially with Gartner research showing that attracting and retaining new customers will be the number one IT priority in 2009.

"The study was US based because we wanted to look at data breaches and the companies required to provide notice to consumers in the event of a data breach and my gut tells me if we did the same benchmark in Australia the numbers would be lower because of the abnormal turnover of customers as a result of receiving such bad news," Ponemon said.