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Study: Data Breaches Up Nearly 50% in 2008
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Michael Barkoviak / DailyTech
January 10, 2009
‘A non-profit group showed data breaches rose sharply in 2008.’ -
A report published by the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) estimates more than 35 million data records were illegally accessed during 2008. The ITRC also believes the number of reported data breaches occurring in the United States increased almost 50 percent, and the number could be higher.
“Our sense is that two things are happening – the criminal population is stealing more data from companies and that we are hearing more about the breaches,” ITRC said in a statement. “ITRC has been tracking breaches since 2001. One thing we absolutely can say is that data breaches are not a new problem.”
The group reported 656 reports of data breaches in 2008, which is up from 446 in 2007, where 35 million data records were breached. Insider theft also doubled to account for almost 16 percent of the data breaches, with a third of the breaches caused by stolen laptops.
Along with theft or loss of laptops, hacking, accidental disclosure, employees improperly handling data, and issues with subcontractors also led to data theft. To help try and reduce the amount of employee theft and negligence, many companies are beginning to crack down on the activities of their employees.
“We recently had a mid-sized ”http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/05/AR2009010503046.html" rel="nofollow">institution in the U.S. that wanted to do a test of technology to help them monitor employee activities, and that ended up with two employees being arrested," Actimize chief marketing officer Amir Orad told the Washington Post. “That’s the type of outcome we did not see two years ago.”
Researchers were alarmed to find just 2.4 percent of all stolen information was encrypted, and only 8.5 percent had basic password protection.
The financial sector is the top industry at attempting to protect data, with financial institutions having only 78 major security breaches in 2008.
A copy of the report can be found here (PDF).
© 2008, DailyTech
