The latest count from the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) reports that there have been 698 data breaches recorded this year through May 30 and that more than 10.2 million records have been exposed since the beginning of the year. The total represents a 35.3% 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.
Chipotle Mexican Grill reported in late April that it had been the victim of a malware attack that stole customer payment card data used at the restaurant chain’s point-of-sale devices between March 24 and April 18 of this year. The company posted a list of affected stores at its website on Tuesday, along with more information for specific states.
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 390 incidents. That represents 55.9% of the incidents and nearly 74% of the exposed records so far this year.
The medical/health care sector has posted 21.6% (151) of all data breaches. The number of records exposed in these breaches totaled more than 1.9 million, or about 18.8% of the 2017 total.
The educational sector has experienced 83 data breaches since the beginning of the year. The sector accounts for 11.9% of all breaches for the year and more than 48,000 exposed records, about 0.5% of the year’s total.
The government/military sector has suffered 38 data breaches to date in 2017, representing about 2% of the total number of records exposed and 5.4% 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 36, some 5.2% of the total incidents reported so far this year. Some 520,000 records have been reported to be compromised in the incidents.
Since beginning to track data breaches in 2005, ITRC had counted 7,596 breaches through May 30, 2017, involving nearly 900 million records.
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