Statistics from 2016 have been released showing that colossal 1,792 data breaches resulted in nearly 1.4 billion data records being compromised globally. Most concerning is the 86% rise in the number of records stolen compared to 2015.
Identity was central to these high numbers, with 59% of all of these data breaches falling into the category of identity theft. The panic among organisations is also visible in the new figures, as in 52% of these cases the number of compromised records were not shared as part of the initial report.
These figures have been revealed in a report by Gemalto based on The Breach Level Index, a global database that tracks data breaches while also measuring severity, type of data and source.
The figures from the report of 2016 data breaches are broken down, giving maximum impact to the scale of the problem. The massive figures equate to 3,776,738 records lost or stolen every day, 2,623 per minute and 44 every second.
Joe Pindar, Director of Product Strategy, CTO at Gemalto: “The fact that the number of records stolen last year has increased despite a fall in the number of actual breaches highlights how hackers are becoming more efficient in how they retrieve and obtain critical data. With the upcoming introduction of GDPR set to make the reporting of breaches mandatory, these results should be a wakeup call to UK businesses to get their houses in order before the regulation kicks in and they are forced to reveal incidents that have occurred.
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Mr Pindar said: “UK businesses have just over a year to show they are putting the right protections in place, otherwise they face potential fines and loss of customer trust. While the UK’s numbers seem small in comparison to the US, if businesses don’t act now, they could find themselves closing that gap rapidly.”
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