Technology

2017 Data Breaches 30% Higher Than Last Year's Record Pace

Paul Ausick

Published: June 15, 2017 7:40 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 11:03 am

The latest count from the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) reports that there have been 732 data breaches recorded this year through June 14 and that more than 10.8 million records have been exposed since the beginning of the year. The total represents a 29.6% increase in the number of breaches to date compared with 2016.

In 2016, the ITRC reported a record total of 1,093 breaches and at the current pace that total could rise to around 1,500 in 2017.

Last week researchers at Trend Micro uncovered a new method that cybercriminals are using to deliver malware. Using a variation of a Trojan downloader that was first discovered in 2012 and capable of remote access, network traffic monitoring and browser manipulation, the new variant can now be delivered when an unsuspecting user merely hovers the mouse pointer over a hyperlinked picture or bit of text in a PowerPoint presentation. More details are available on the Trend Micro blog and at DarkReading.com.

The business sector leads them all in the number of records compromised so far in 2017, with more than 7.5 million exposed records in 404 incidents. That represents 55.2% of the incidents and nearly 70% of the exposed records so far this year.

The medical/health care sector has posted 22.1% (162) of all data breaches. The number of records exposed in these breaches totaled nearly 2.5 million, or about 23% of the 2017 total.

The educational sector has experienced 86 data breaches since the beginning of the year. The sector accounts for 11.7% of all breaches for the year and more than 73,000 exposed records, about 0.7% of the year’s total.

The government/military sector has suffered 42 data breaches to date in 2017, representing about 2% of the total number of records exposed and 5.7% of the incidents. More than 200,000 records have been compromised in the government/military sector.

The number of banking/credit/financial sector breaches now totals 38, some 5.2% of the total incidents reported so far this year. About 526,000 records have been reported to be compromised in the incidents.

Since beginning to track data breaches in 2005, ITRC had counted 7,630 breaches through June 13, 2017, involving nearly 900 million records.