Organizations that experienced a data breach paid an average of $6.6 million last year to rebuild their brand image and retain customers following public disclosures of the incidents, according to a new study. The fourth annual survey by the Ponemon Institute, a Tucson, Ariz., based independent research company, found that companies spent roughly $202 per consumer record compromised. The same study put the total cost of a breach in 2007 at $6.3 million, and roughly $4.7 million in 2006. The survey examined cost estimates from 43 organizations that reported a data breach last year. The average number of consumer records exposed in each breach was about 33,000, but the number of records affected in each incident ranged from fewer than 4,200 to more than 113,000. Eighty-four percent of the companies surveyed had experienced at least one data breach or loss prior to 2008, said Larry Ponemon, the institute's founder. The