The average cost of cyber Crime per organization has climbed to $11.7 million per organization, an increase of 23 percent over the previous year, a new study has revealed.

The research, conducted by Accenture (NYSE: ACN) and the Penmen Institute, said that the average cost of per organization has witnessed a dramatic increase of 62 percent in the last five years.

In 2016, the average cost per organization was recorded $9.5 million.

The highest total average cost per cyber-attack was recorded in the United States – $21.22 million. Australia reported the lowest total average cost per attack– $5.41 million.

Germany saw the most significant increase in total cybercrime costs — $8.44 million to $11.15 million.

The researchers, after surveying 2,182 IT and security professionals in 254 organizations across the world found that:

A company suffers around 130 breaches per year on average in 2017,  a 27.4 percent increase over the previous year.

Germany saw the most significant increase in total cybercrime costs — $8.44 million to $11.15 million.

Companies that offer financial services are the prime victim of the cyber-attacks, with an average annual cost of $18.28 million.

The energy sector businesses suffer an average annual cost of $17.20 million, the researchers found.

“The costly and devastating consequences businesses are suffering, as a result of the cyber-crime, highlights the growing importance of strategically planning and closely monitoring security investments. As this research shows, making wise investments in innovation can certainly help make a significant difference when cyber criminals strike,” Kelly Bissell, managing director of Accenture Security, said.

“Keeping pace with these more sophisticated and highly motivated attacks demands that organizations adopt a dynamic, nimble security strategy that builds resilience from the inside out – versus only focusing on the perimeter — with an industry-specific approach that protects the entire value chain, end-to-end.”

Two most costly attack types are Malware and Web-based, on which the companies spend an average of $2.4 million and $2 million respectively.

“The foundation of a strong and effective security program is to identify and ‘harden’ the most-high value assets,” said Dr. Larry Ponemon, chairman, and founder of the Ponemon Institute.

“While steady progress has been made in improving the cyber defense, a better understanding of the cost of cybercrime could help businesses bridge the gap between their own vulnerabilities and the escalating creativity—and numbers—of threat actors,” he added.