Identity Theft Resource Center releases Troubling Report of Data Breaches

According to one of the latest reports from the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), there have been 392 data breaches recorded in this year alone through March 28, 2017.

These data breaches have reportedly affected approximately 7.4 million consumers whose records have been exposed since the beginning of 2017. More troubling is the fact that ITRC indicates that the number of breaches has increased by 51%, compared to the number of breaches in 2015.

One of these recent data attacks hit America’s JobLink (AJL) This breach compromised the personal information of 4.8 million individuals seeking employment in ten different states. The personal identification information exposed included the names, Social Security numbers, and the birth dates of these job seekers.

AJL says the attack was committed by a hacker who had exploited a weakness in the company’s application code to gain access to the information. The breach was first noticed on March 12, 2017 and later confirmed on March 21, 2017.

Overview of Data Breach Frequency

According to the ITRC, different sectors of the United States industries have been hit with data breaches.

• The business sector had been hit with the most attacks so far in 2017. This includes over 5.2 million exposed records in 206 breaches, which represented 52.6% of the incidents and 71.4% of the records exposed so far in 2017.
• The medical and healthcare sector is second in most frequent attacks, consisting of 24.7% of all breaches. This includes two million exposed records, which is about 27.5% of the total number of breaches in 2017.
• The government and military sector is third on the list, with 20 breaches as of 2017. While this only makes up to 0.6% of total number of compromised records, and 5.1% of all breaches, there were still over 44,000 records of military or government workers compromised.
• The education sector is fourth on the list, experiencing 61 breaches since the beginning of 2017. This sector composes of 15.6% of all breaches for the year, along with 40,000 compromised records and making 0.5% of the 2017 total.
• The banking and financial sector comes in fifth, now totaling eight breaches and just 2% of the total incidents so far reported in 2017. Luckily, it has been indicated that no personal records of have been compromised in these attacks.

The ITRC began tracking data breaches all the way back in 2005. It has counted 7,291 attacks and 889 million compromised records through March 28, 2017.

Data breaches increased by 40% alone in 2016, affecting millions of United States citizens. While there are a number of factors that contribute to data insecurity, the majority of individuals rely on companies to protect their personal information.

Companies and other relevant entities have the responsibility of protecting this highly sensitive information, and need to make sure that their software is as safe as possible.

Join a Free Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

Companies you entrust your personal information with are obligated to keep your information safe and secure. If you were recently notified that your personal information was compromised due to a data breach, you may qualify to file a data breach lawsuit or class action lawsuit.

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