Hackers expose 12.4 million American’s private information in the first 6 months of 2017 and 60% of those included Social Security Numbers!
There have been 791 major data breaches in the U.S. tracked in the first half of 2017, a record high, according to a recently released report from the Identity Theft Resource Center.
The new report revealed that of the 791 major data breaches in the U.S. the health/medical industry experienced 179 breaches or about 22.6 percent of all U.S. data breaches.
By type of breach, Phishing attacks made up almost 48% of all breaches reported followed by Malware infections at about 18%.
The ITRC estimates 12.4 million people had their information exposed so far in 2017. If the pace continues, it will be about a 38% annual increase over 2016.
60% of data breaches this year have exposed Social Security numbers.
It should be noted that ITRC uses public news reports and notices as their source information and many breached organizations don’t report their breaches publicly to avoid negative publicity. This means that actual breach counts and actual damages may be much higher than indicated here.
