Breaches and Compromises Stepped Up in Q1 and Q2

data breach

Breaches and Compromises Stepped Up in Q1 and Q2

There were 918 data breaches in early 2017, up 30% from the previous half a year, and as a result 1.9 billion records were compromised, a 164% increase.

Malicious Outsiders, Accidental Loss

Malicious outsiders were the leading source of data breaches, but accidental loss was the biggest source of lost or stolen records. Identity theft was once again the most common type of breach.

More Records Stolen or Lost

1.9 billion data records were lost or stolen during the first half of 2017, compared to 721 million during the prior six months—a 164% increase.

Frequency of Records Breached

Every day during the first half of 2017, 10,507,550 data records were breached. That means 437,815 records were breached every hour, 7,297 every minute and 122 every second.

Number Of Breaches

During the first half of 2017, there were 22 breaches in which more than 1 million records were compromised, stolen or lost.

Accidental Loss

The number of breaches involving accidental loss totaled 166, or 18% of all breaches, up 7% from the prior six months.

Cascading Effect of Accidental Losses

These accidental loss attacks resulted in the theft of more than 1.6 billion records, accounting for a stunning 86% of all stolen records.

Malicious Outsiders

Malicious outsiders, the second biggest source of stolen records, were responsible for 679 data breaches, which resulted in the theft of 254 million records, 13% of the total.

Top Types of Data Compromised

• Identity theft: 680 (74%)

• Financial access: 116 (13%)

• Account access: 58 (6%)

• Existential data: 52 (6%)

• Nuisance: 12 (1%)

Healthcare Hardest Hit by Breaches

Healthcare suffered the most—with 228 breaches—but the number of records stolen (31 million) was just 2% of the total. But that was up 423% from just 6 million records stolen in the previous period.

How 4 Other Industries Fared

• Financial services: 125 breaches, 5 million records stolen

• Education: 118 breaches, 32 million records impacted

• Retail: 112 breaches, 4 million records affected

• Government: 89 breaches, 404 million records exposed

Breaches By Region

• North America: 808 incidents, 88% (U.S. accounted for 781of them)

• Europe: 49 incidents, 5% (U.K. accounted for 40 of them)

• Asia/Pacific: 47 incidents, 5%

• Middle East/Africa: 7 incidents, less than 1%