Millions of records leaked in 2014

Over 75m data files have been leaked this year in close to 600 breaches, says the latest Identity Theft Resource Centre breach report.

At the same time last year, there were only  439 reported breaches. The 29.4% increase was discovered in the last count on 23rd September and includes Home Depot, which saw 56m records compromised. The nonprofit organisation that carried out the report includes payment card data, medical records, and driving license numbers.

Health and medical care organisations made up 43.5 per cent of breaches, while last year saw businesses account for 84% of breaches. Such a significant shift in affected industries may be a sign of insufficient resources or education within the heath sector.

Canh Tran from fraud protection firm RippleShot said that hospitals don’t prioritise security solutions, which may have been the reason why they were targeted.

Marc Malizia from IT consulting firm RKON told SCMagazine.com:

“I think it will escalate from here until companies start taking the threat seriously and put the resources and cutting edge technologies in place to protect these devices. The market for stolen data or compromised server access is growing, providing a perfect haven for these criminals.”

Businesses are becoming more aware of cyber threats, but there are still too many that don’t fully understand the risks and fail to take the necessary precautions. If the pattern continues and more businesses become targets, however, they will likely sit up and take notice – at which point we will see more cyber security jobs available in a bid to combat potential attacks.