Digital security firm Gemalto reveals data breaches increased by 15 percent since 2015

A digital security firm has revealed that the incidence of reported data breaches has risen by 15 percent in the first half of 2016 as compared to the second half of 2015. The research was conducted by Gemalto, which released its findings today. Their findings suggest that reported data breaches have gone up from 844 cases to 974 cases and that the number of compromised records has gone up by 100 million. [caption id=“attachment_337022” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  Source: Gemalto[/caption] The company claims that 4.8 billion records have been exposed since 2013. Identity theft accounted for 64 percent of the total data breaches and “malicious outsiders” were responsible for 69 percent of total breaches. “Over the past twelve months hackers have continued to go after both low hanging fruit and unprotected sensitive personal data that can be used to steal identities,” Jason Hart, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Data Protection at Gemalto. “The theft of user names and account affiliation may be irritating for consumers, but the failure of organizations to protect sensitive personal information and identities is a growing problem that will have implications for consumer confidence in the digital services and companies they entrust with their personal data.” [caption id=“attachment_337025” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  Source: Gemalto[/caption] The report suggests that healthcare accounted for 27 percent of all data breaches, but only 5 percent of all compromised records. Government breaches stood at 14 percent, but reportedly accounted for 57 percent of all compromised records. Geographically speaking, 79 percent of reported breaches occurred in North America and 9 percent and 8 percent in Europe and Asia-Pacific respectively. [caption id=“attachment_337026” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  Source: Gemalto[/caption] Gemalto is a digital security company that has been tracking reported data breaches since 2013. They also offer solutions for payment systems, IoT and enterprise systems. Gemalto says that the Breach Level Index “The Breach Level Index is a global database that tracks data breaches and measures their severity based on multiple dimensions, including the number of records compromised, the type of data, the source of the breach, how the data was used, and whether or not the data was encrypted. By assigning a severity score to each breach, the Breach Level Index provides a comparative list of breaches, distinguishing data breaches that are a not serious versus those that are truly impactful.”