Breach Levels Subside but Still Affect Millions

Fewer organizations reported breaches in 2015 than in the prior year, but the numbers are still large, new research shows.

The research showed 1,673 reported breaches in 2015, of which 46 involved 1 million or more records. More than 700 million records were exposed as a result of data breaches in 2015.

Of the 1,673 breaches reported in 2015, 964 (or 58 percent) were attributed to malicious outsiders. In contrast, malicious insiders only accounted for 14 percent of breaches.

When it comes to the volume of records involved in a breach, in the first half of 2015, malicious outsiders were responsible for the largest volume at 114.5 million records lost. In the second half of the year, though, the top source for breaches, by record volume was accidental loss at 229 million records lost.

In terms of records, the breach of health insurance provider Anthem was the largest, with nearly 80 million customer records exposed to hackers.

Looking across various industry verticals where breaches occurred in 2015, the government was the leading source of breached records, at 43 percent.

The main goal of more than half (53 percent) of reported breaches in 2015 was identity theft. Financial access came in second place, at only 22 percent.

In 2015, 1,287 breaches were reported in North America, making it the most breached region with 77 percent of the global total.