Ani Petrosyan
Research expert for cybersecurity and cybercrime
Data breaches worldwide - statistics & facts
Data breaches are the worst nightmare for many companies. It is often rightfully listed among top concerns of company leaders. In the third quarter of 2024, 422.61 million data records were leaked in data breaches, impacting millions of individuals worldwide.
Data breaches are security incidents that expose confidential and sensitive information to unauthorized parties. These incidents are complex; they impact individuals, organizations, and government entities, sometimes simultaneously. Because of how precious human attention is, companies want to have as much information as possible about consumers and are ready to pay a high amount of money to those who gather this information. Thus, individuals’ personal data goes a long way and can end up in the hands of cybercriminals.
Another case included the leakage of highly sensitive classified information through espionage. The Pentagon leaks case was concluded on November 11th, when the defender Jack Teixeira pleaded guilty to six counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information under the Espionage Act. He was charged with 15 years in jail. This is believed to be the most significant cyber espionage case in the history of the United States. The 22-year-old, former member of the Massachusetts National Guard, worked as a cyber-transport systems specialist and was responsible for military communications networks. Until the investigation found that he was behind the leakage of classified U.S. military documents into the social media platform Discord.
Business disruption and revenue loss were among the most common consequences of data breach incidents, claimed by over 55 percent of organizations worldwide.
It takes a village to combat data breaches and multiple factors have to be in place for an efficient cybersecurity posture, and the industry is currently facing many challenges. Alongside the shortage of cybersecurity skills, there is also insufficient investment in the cybersecurity sector. Worldwide, only 70 percent of companies had a proper cybersecurity investment, as of 2023. With the development of generative AI, however, many challenges in cybersecurity, including skills shortage, are expected to become easier to overcome.
Recent incidents
In August, Jerico Pictures, Inc., trading under National Public Data, announced the breach of 2.9 billion personal data records. The shocking revelation from the data broker left millions of people in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom (UK) wondering if they might be among the victims. According to estimates, the incident is believed to have impacted every American.Another case included the leakage of highly sensitive classified information through espionage. The Pentagon leaks case was concluded on November 11th, when the defender Jack Teixeira pleaded guilty to six counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information under the Espionage Act. He was charged with 15 years in jail. This is believed to be the most significant cyber espionage case in the history of the United States. The 22-year-old, former member of the Massachusetts National Guard, worked as a cyber-transport systems specialist and was responsible for military communications networks. Until the investigation found that he was behind the leakage of classified U.S. military documents into the social media platform Discord.
Impact of data breaches
Among other things, data breaches have a huge financial impact. The average cost of a data breach incident across companies worldwide is 4.88 million U.S. dollars. This includes detection, business losses, post-breach response, and notification. Among these, the detection and escalation of the data breach was the costliest segment.Business disruption and revenue loss were among the most common consequences of data breach incidents, claimed by over 55 percent of organizations worldwide.
Data that everybody needs
Threat actors usually try to target the most sensitive information. In 2024, about 48 percent of all data breach incidents in global organizations involved customer personal identifiable information (PII), thus making it the most frequently breached type of data. Roughly four in ten data breaches involved employee personal identifiable information. Furthermore, half of social engineering attacks resulted in the loss of credentials, with accommodation and food services companies encountering the highest share of breached credentials.It takes a village to combat data breaches and multiple factors have to be in place for an efficient cybersecurity posture, and the industry is currently facing many challenges. Alongside the shortage of cybersecurity skills, there is also insufficient investment in the cybersecurity sector. Worldwide, only 70 percent of companies had a proper cybersecurity investment, as of 2023. With the development of generative AI, however, many challenges in cybersecurity, including skills shortage, are expected to become easier to overcome.
Ani Petrosyan
,
Nov 19, 2024
Ani Petrosyan
Research expert for cybersecurity and cybercrime
