Cyber crime: number of compromises and victims in U.S. 2005-H1 2022
In the first half of 2022, the number of data compromises in the United States came in at a total of 817 cases. Meanwhile, over the course of the same time, over 53 million individuals were affected by data compromises, which include data breaches, data leakage, and data exposure. While these are three different events, they have one thing in common. As a result of all three incidents, the sensitive data is accessed by an unauthorized threat actor.
The largest data breach to date was uncovered in late 2016, as online platform Yahoo announced that hackers had stolen user information associated with at least 1 billion accounts in 2013. The full impact of this breach only came to light in October 2017 however, when it was revealed after further investigation that 3 billion accounts had in fact been compromised. The medical and business sectors have consistently been the most affected by data breaches, with the business industry accounting for the majority of all exposed records since 2016. Cost-wise, large enterprises with over 1000 employees were the hardest hit by cyber-attacks, with each incidence costing affected companies an average of 500 thousand U.S. dollars in 2020. For large companies with up to less than 1000 employees however, this only amounted to 133 thousand on average per attack.
Industries most vulnerable to data breaches
Some industry sectors see more significant cases of private data violations than others. This is determined by the type and volume of the personal information organizations these sectors store. In 2021, the three industry sectors where most data breaches were recorded were healthcare, financial services, and manufacturing. In the United States, the number of healthcare data breaches has increased gradually within the past few years. In the financial sector, the number of data compromises has increased almost twice between 2020 and 2021, while manufacturing saw data compromises triple.Yahoo’s 2013 breach remains largest to date
The largest data breach to date was uncovered in late 2016, as online platform Yahoo announced that hackers had stolen user information associated with at least 1 billion accounts in 2013. The full impact of this breach only came to light in October 2017 however, when it was revealed after further investigation that 3 billion accounts had in fact been compromised. The medical and business sectors have consistently been the most affected by data breaches, with the business industry accounting for the majority of all exposed records since 2016. Cost-wise, large enterprises with over 1000 employees were the hardest hit by cyber-attacks, with each incidence costing affected companies an average of 500 thousand U.S. dollars in 2020. For large companies with up to less than 1000 employees however, this only amounted to 133 thousand on average per attack.
