Sometimes all you really want are some statistics. The Internet Threat Resource Center (ITRC) has put together a list of significant numbers for the first month of 2018 with regard to data breaches. They include some surprising bits and some that well, we just already expect. Let’s get to it, shall we?
Overall there is some good news. This time last year IRTC recorded 125 breaches which is a few more than reported for the first month of 2018. In 2017, it was 125 and for 2018, down seven percent to 116.
More than half of the recorded data breaches are considered “businesses,” which means they are retail services, transportation, utilities, payment processors, hospitality and tourism services, professional organizations, trade organizations, or others not included in education, medical/healthcare, government/military, or banking/credit/financial.
Government and military breaches rose from 4% to 7.8% in January. Business increased to 53.4%, from 47.2% last year and unfortunately, banking, credit, and the financial industry saw an increase too.
The good news is that the banking, credit, and financial industry is still at the bottom of the list compared to the other areas. This means that training on cybersecurity and other measures are working to protect important data.
Unfortunately, the threat of hacking isn’t going away. The report found that these (described by ITRC to include ransomware, phishing of all types, and skimming) continue to be the most common type of attacks, hitting nearly 30% of the total number of data breaches tracked. More than 10% involved ransomware or malware and 8.6% were phishing.
The individual totals are:
- Business: 63 breaches, 2,024,319 records accessed.
- Medical/Healthcare: 31 breaches, 232,589 records accessed.
- Government/Military: 9 breaches, 499,791 records accessed.
- Education: 7 breaches, 282,463 records accessed.
- Banking/Financial/Credit: 7 breaches, 119,279 records accessed.
Since 2005, the ITRC has tracked 8,592 data breach incidents. Of those, 47 occurred in January of this year. It defines a data breach as “an incident in which an individual name plus a Social Security number, driver’s license number, medical record or financial record (credit/debit cards included) is potentially put at risk because of exposure.”
Continuing education and awareness training seems to be the key to keeping data safe. As records in the medical/healthcare industry continue to transition from paper to electronic, it will be increasingly important to perform continual training in those areas as well. If this does occur, it’s likely the numbers in those areas will go the way of the financial sector too. It seems the business sector may benefit from the same procedures as well.
For banks and credit unions
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