Data Breaches Now In-Line With 2014 Record Pace

December 2, 2015 by Paul Ausick

The latest account from the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) reports that there has been a total of 717 data breaches recorded through December 1, 2015, and that more than 176 million records have been exposed. The annual total includes 21.5 million records exposed in the attack on the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in June and 78.8 million health care customer records exposed at Anthem in February.

The total number of breaches jumped by 27 incidents from the prior report on November 24, bringing the total number of incidents to date this year to within two of the 719 incidents as of the same period in 2014. The ITRC recorded 783 breaches last year, and that total could easily be topped in the last month of this year.

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

  • The business sector accounts for about 16 million exposed records in 290 incidents so far in 2015. That represents 40.4% of the incidents, and 9.2% of the exposed records.
  • The medical/health care sector posted the second-largest percentage of the total breaches so far this year, 34.6% (248) out of the total of 717. The number of records exposed in these breaches totaled over 120 million, or 68.1% of the total so far in 2015.
  • The number of banking/credit/financial breaches totals 66 for the year to date and involves more than 5 million records, some 9.2% of the total number of breaches and 2.9% of the records exposed.
  • The government/military sector has suffered 58 data breaches so far this year, representing about 19.4% of the total number of records exposed and 8.1% of the incidents. More than 34 million records have been compromised in the government/military sector to date in 2015.
  • The educational sector has seen 55 data breaches in 2015. The sector accounts for 7.7% of all breaches for the year and nearly 760,000 exposed records, about 0.4% of the total so far in 2015.

In all of 2014, ITRC tracked an annual record number of 783 data breaches, up 27.5% compared with 2013. The previous high was 662 breaches in 2010. Since beginning to track data breaches in 2005, ITRC had counted 5,679 breaches through November 10, 2015, involving more than 854 million records. Compared with 2014, the number of data breaches to date in 2015 is down by two (0.3%) from 719 recorded to the same date last year.

ALSO READ: 5 Top Dividend Hikes Expected Before the End of 2015

Sponsored: Want to Retire Early? Here’s a Great First Step

Want retirement to come a few years earlier than you’d planned? Or are you ready to retire now, but want an extra set of eyes on your finances?

Now you can speak with up to 3 financial experts in your area for FREE. By simply clicking here you can begin to match with financial professionals who can help you build your plan to retire early. And the best part? The first conversation with them is free.

Click here to match with up to 3 financial pros who would be excited to help you make financial decisions.