Data Breaches Compromised 4.5 Billion Records In First Half of 2022

Data breaches are an always present danger, and their frequency and magnitude are only getting worse. According to digital security company Gemalto's 2022 Breach Level Index written report, more than than 4.5 billion data records were compromised in the first half of this year, a 133-per centum increase from last year'south study.

That's more than 25 million data records lost or stolen per day, over a million every hour, more than 17,000 every minute, and 291 records every second.

The Why Axis Bug Gemalto tallied a total of 945 breach incidents worldwide in the first one-half of 2022, which is, surprisingly, less than the 1,162 breaches disclosed in the first half of 2022. A majority (559) of the incidents occurred in North America; 339 occurred in the Asia Pacific region, predominately Australia.

As high as these figures are, the total number of data records compromised is much higher. Of those 945 incidents, Gemalto said that for 20 percentage of breaches, the number of compromised records was unknown.

Not surprising is that the top source of information breaches was "malicious outside actors," meaning external attackers. Those attacks encompassed more than than 3.6 billon data records, or 80 percent of the total from the beginning half of 2022.

The next about prevalent cause of compromised data records was accidental data loss, which dropped by 47 pct from over one.6 billion records in the 2022 report to 879 1000000 in 2022. Those human mistakes even so accounted for 318 out of the 945 total incidents this year. Beyond those ii primary causes, 7 percentage of breaches were the result of malicious insiders stealing data from a company, and 2 pct of breaches were perpetrated by hacktivists.

Across industries, healthcare got hit the worst, with 27 pct of breaches,. Attacks were otherwise distributed across fiscal and educational institutions, government and professional organizations, retail, industrial, and more than. The breaches, nonetheless, had one overwhelming theme: identity theft deemed for 65 pct of breaches and over 3.nine billion of the compromised data records. Account access and financial access trailed far backside, making upward 17 and 13 percentage of breaches, respectively.

The one silvery lining in the report is that encryption remains the best security deterrent. Only ii.2 percent of information breaches occurred on systems where encrpytion was used.

Cheque out Gemalto'southward total infographic below:

Well-nigh Rob Marvin

Rob Marvin

Rob Marvin is PCMag'southward Associate Features Editor. He writes features, news, and trend stories on all manner of emerging technologies. Beats include: startups, business and venture majuscule, blockchain and cryptocurrencies, AI, augmented and virtual reality, IoT and automation, legal cannabis tech, social media, streaming, security, mobile commerce, M&A, and entertainment. Rob was previously Assistant Editor and Associate Editor in PCMag's Business section. Prior to that, he served as an editor at SD Times. He graduated from Syracuse University'due south S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. You tin can also find his business and tech coverage on Entrepreneur and Fox Business organization. Rob is also an unabashed nerd who does occasional entertainment writing for …