Data Breaches on Pace to Reach 1,000 in 2016

By Paul Ausick Updated Jan 13, 6:11AM EST · Published Jun 30, 2:48PM EDT

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Data Breaches on Pace to Reach 1,000 in 2016 — © Thinkstock

The latest count from the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) reports that there have been 500 data breaches recorded this year through June 28, 2016, and that nearly 12.8 million records have been exposed since the beginning of the year. The total number of reported breaches increased by 11 since ITRC’s last report.

Earlier this week, fast-casual restaurant chain Noodles & Co. (NASDAQ: NDLS) reported that between January 31, 2016 and June 2, 2016, customer credit and debit card transactions at some store locations may have been compromised. The company did not say how many of its nearly 500 stores nor how many customers were affected. Noodles & Co. did say that the breach has been contained. Customer information that may have been compromised includes name, card number, expiration date, and card security code.

The number of breaches in 2015 totaled 781, just 2 shy of the record 783 breaches that ITRC tracked in 2014. The 500 data breaches reported so far for 2016 are 19% more than the number reported (421) for the same period last year. A total of more than 169 million records were exposed in 2015.

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Here’s a rundown of the ITRC report for last week:

The government/military sector retained the lead in the number of records exposed in 2016. The sector has suffered 29 data breaches so far this year, representing about 44.1% of the total number of records exposed and 5.8% of the incidents. More than 5.6 million records have been compromised in the government/military sector to date in 2016.

The business sector accounts for more than 2.4 million exposed records in 232 incidents. That represents 46.4% of the incidents, and 19% of the exposed records.

The medical/healthcare sector has posted 33.4% (167) of all data breaches to date this year. The number of records exposed in these breaches totaled more than 4.3 million, or about 33.4% of the total so far in 2016.

The number of banking/credit/financial breaches totals 15 for the year-to-date and involves more than 5,200 records, some 3% of the total number of breaches and less than 0.1% of the records exposed.

The educational sector has seen 57 data breaches in 2016. The sector accounts for 11.4% of all breaches for the year and more than 366,000 exposed records, about 2.9% of the total so far this year.

Since beginning to track data breaches in 2005, ITRC had counted 6,311 breaches through June 28, 2016, involving more than 862 million records.

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About the Author Paul Ausick →

Paul Ausick has been writing for a673b.bigscoots-temp.com for more than a decade. He has written extensively on investing in the energy, defense, and technology sectors. In a previous life, he wrote technical documentation and managed a marketing communications group in Silicon Valley.

He has a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Chicago and now lives in Montana, where he fishes for trout in the summer and stays inside during the winter.