700 mln data records being compromised globally in 2015

According to Gemalto’s breach level index, more than 3.6 billion data records have been exposed since 2013 when the index began benchmarking publicly disclosed data breaches. In 2015, malicious outsiders were the leading source of these breaches, accounting for 964, or 58% of breaches and 38% of compromised records, while identity theft remained the primary type of breach, accounting for 53% of data breaches and 40% of all compromised records.

Across industries, the government sector accounted for 43% of compromised data records, up 476% from 2014 due to several very large data breaches in the US and Turkey, and 16% of all data breaches. The healthcare sector accounted for 19% of total records compromised and 23% of all data breaches. The retail sector saw a major drop (93%) in the number of stolen data records compared to the same period last year, accounting for just 6% of stolen records and 10% of the total number of breaches in 2015. The financial services sector also saw a nearly 99% drop, representing just 0.1% of compromised data records and 15% of the total number of breaches.

While malicious outsiders accounted for the largest percentage of data breach incidents (58%), accidental loss or exposure of data records accounted for 36% of all records. The number of state-sponsored attacks accounted for 2% of data breach incidents, but the number of records compromised as a result of those attacks totaled 15% of all records exposed. Malicious insiders accounted for 14% of all data breaches and just 7% of compromised records.

In terms of geographic regions, 77% of all data breach incidents occurred in North America, with 59% of all compromised records happening in the US. Europe accounted for 12% of overall breach incidents, followed by the Asia Pacific region at 8%.