A new report by Risk Based Security says that 2019 is on track to being the “worst year on record” for data breach activity.
The 2019 Midyear Quickview Data Breach Report from Risk Based Security reports the number of data breaches is already up by 54% over last year, with half the year left to go. The number of records exposed in those breaches is up by 52%. More than 3,800 data breaches were reported in the first half of the year, exposing 4.1 billion records and compromising consumers’ personal and financial information.
More than 3.2 billion records (80% of the total records) were exposed in just eight of the data breaches reported in the first half of the year.
Two-thirds of the breaches and 85% of the stolen data occurred in the business sector, including the financial industry, where networks store some of the most sensitive consumer information.
Email addresses and passwords remain high-value targets for hackers. According to the report, emails account for 70% of the data compromised so far this year. Passwords account for about 64% of all data compromised to date.