As of 2025, the mean number of days to identify the data breaches was *** days, six days faster than in the previous year. The mean time companies needed to contain the breaches in the measured year was ** days. In comparison, in 2021, it took organizations *** days to identify and ** days to address the data breaches.

During the third quarter of 2025, data breaches exposed more than ** million records worldwide. Since the first quarter of 2020, the highest number of data records were exposed in the third quarter of ****, more than **** billion data sets. Data breaches remain among the biggest concerns of company leaders worldwide. The most common causes of sensitive information loss were operating system vulnerabilities on endpoint devices. Which industries see the most data breaches? Meanwhile, certain conditions make some industry sectors more prone to data breaches than others. According to the latest observations, the public administration experienced the highest number of data breaches between 2021 and 2022. The industry saw *** reported data breach incidents with confirmed data loss. The second were financial institutions, with *** data breach cases, followed by healthcare providers. Data breach cost Data breach incidents have various consequences, the most common impact being financial losses and business disruptions. As of 2023, the average data breach cost across businesses worldwide was **** million U.S. dollars. Meanwhile, a leaked data record cost about *** U.S. dollars. The United States saw the highest average breach cost globally, at **** million U.S. dollars.

As of 2024, the average cost of a data breach in the United States amounted to **** million U.S. dollars, down from **** million U.S. dollars in the previous year. The global average cost per data breach was **** million U.S. dollars in 2024. Cost of a data breach in different countries worldwide Data breaches impose a big threat for organizations globally. The monetary damage caused by data breaches has increased in many markets in the past decade. In 2023, Canada followed the U.S. by data breach costs, with an average of **** million U.S. dollars. Since 2019, the average monetary damage caused by loss of sensitive information in Canada has increased notably. In the United Kingdom, the average cost of a data breach in 2024 amounted to around **** million U.S. dollars, while in Germany it stood at **** million U.S. dollars. The cost of data breach by industry and segment Data breach costs vary depending on the industry and segment. For the fourth consecutive year, the global healthcare sector registered the highest costs of data breach, which in 2024 amounted to about **** million U.S. dollars. Financial institutions ranked second, with an average cost of *** million U.S. dollars for a data breach. Detection and escalation was the costliest segment in data breaches worldwide, with **** U.S. dollars on average. The cost for lost business ranked second, while response following a breach came across as the third-costliest segment.

In 2024, the number of data compromises in the United States stood at 3,158 cases. Meanwhile, over 1.35 billion individuals were affected in the same year by data compromises, including data breaches, leakage, and exposure. While these are three different events, they have one thing in common. As a result of all three incidents, the sensitive data is accessed by an unauthorized threat actor. Industries most vulnerable to data breaches Some industry sectors usually see more significant cases of private data violations than others. This is determined by the type and volume of the personal information organizations of these sectors store. In 2024 the financial services, healthcare, and professional services were the three industry sectors that recorded most data breaches. Overall, the number of healthcare data breaches in some industry sectors in the United States has gradually increased within the past few years. However, some sectors saw decrease. Largest data exposures worldwide In 2020, an adult streaming website, CAM4, experienced a leakage of nearly 11 billion records. This, by far, is the most extensive reported data leakage. This case, though, is unique because cyber security researchers found the vulnerability before the cyber criminals. The second-largest data breach is the Yahoo data breach, dating back to 2013. The company first reported about one billion exposed records, then later, in 2017, came up with an updated number of leaked records, which was three billion. In March 2018, the third biggest data breach happened, involving India’s national identification database Aadhaar. As a result of this incident, over 1.1 billion records were exposed.

📌 Context of the Dataset

The Healthcare Ransomware Dataset was created to simulate real-world cyberattacks in the healthcare industry. Hospitals, clinics, and research labs have become prime targets for ransomware due to their reliance on real-time patient data and legacy IT infrastructure. This dataset provides insight into attack patterns, recovery times, and cybersecurity practices across different healthcare organizations.

Why is this important?

Ransomware attacks on healthcare organizations can shut down entire hospitals, delay treatments, and put lives at risk. Understanding how different healthcare organizations respond to attacks can help develop better security strategies. The dataset allows cybersecurity analysts, data scientists, and researchers to study patterns in ransomware incidents and explore predictive modeling for risk mitigation.

📌 Sources and Research Inspiration This simulated dataset was inspired by real-world cybersecurity reports and built using insights from official sources, including:

1️⃣ IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report (2024)

The healthcare sector had the highest average cost of data breaches ($10.93 million per incident). On average, organizations recovered only 64.8% of their data after paying ransom. Healthcare breaches took 277 days on average to detect and contain.

2️⃣ Sophos State of Ransomware in Healthcare (2024)

67% of healthcare organizations were hit by ransomware in 2024, an increase from 60% in 2023. 66% of backup compromise attempts succeeded, making data recovery significantly more difficult. The most common attack vectors included exploited vulnerabilities (34%) and compromised credentials (34%).

3️⃣ Health & Human Services (HHS) Cybersecurity Reports

Ransomware incidents in healthcare have doubled since 2016. Organizations that fail to monitor threats frequently experience higher infection rates.

4️⃣ Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Alerts

Identified phishing, unpatched software, and exposed RDP ports as top ransomware entry points. Only 13% of healthcare organizations monitor cyber threats more than once per day, increasing the risk of undetected attacks.

5️⃣ Emsisoft 2020 Report on Ransomware in Healthcare

The number of ransomware attacks in healthcare increased by 278% between 2018 and 2023. 560 healthcare facilities were affected in a single year, disrupting patient care and emergency services.

📌 Why is This a Simulated Dataset?

This dataset does not contain real patient data or actual ransomware cases. Instead, it was built using probabilistic modeling and structured randomness based on industry benchmarks and cybersecurity reports.

How It Was Created:

1️⃣ Defining the Dataset Structure

The dataset was designed to simulate realistic attack patterns in healthcare, using actual ransomware case studies as inspiration.

Columns were selected based on what real-world cybersecurity teams track, such as: Attack methods (phishing, RDP exploits, credential theft). Infection rates, recovery time, and backup compromise rates. Organization type (hospitals, clinics, research labs) and monitoring frequency.

2️⃣ Generating Realistic Data Using ChatGPT & Python

ChatGPT assisted in defining relationships between attack factors, ensuring that key cybersecurity concepts were accurately reflected. Python’s NumPy and Pandas libraries were used to introduce randomized attack simulations based on real-world statistics. Data was validated against industry research to ensure it aligns with actual ransomware attack trends.

3️⃣ Ensuring Logical Relationships Between Data Points

Hospitals take longer to recover due to larger infrastructure and compliance requirements. Organizations that track more cyber threats recover faster because they detect attacks earlier. Backup security significantly impacts recovery time, reflecting the real-world risk of backup encryption attacks.

Between March 2024 and February 2025, the highest average cost of a data breach, nearly **** million U.S. dollars, was detected in the healthcare industry. The financial sector ranked second, with **** million U.S. dollars on average per breach. The global average data breach cost in the measured period was **** million U.S. dollars. Data breaches in the public sector cost relatively lower, an average of **** million U.S. dollars during the measured period.

The largest reported data leakage as of January 2025 was the Cam4 data breach in March 2020, which exposed more than 10 billion data records. The second-largest data breach in history so far, the Yahoo data breach, occurred in 2013. The company initially reported about one billion exposed data records, but after an investigation, the company updated the number, revealing that three billion accounts were affected. The National Public Data Breach was announced in August 2024. The incident became public when personally identifiable information of individuals became available for sale on the dark web. Overall, the security professionals estimate the leakage of nearly three billion personal records. The next significant data leakage was the March 2018 security breach of India's national ID database, Aadhaar, with over 1.1 billion records exposed. This included biometric information such as identification numbers and fingerprint scans, which could be used to open bank accounts and receive financial aid, among other government services.

Cybercrime - the dark side of digitalization As the world continues its journey into the digital age, corporations and governments across the globe have been increasing their reliance on technology to collect, analyze and store personal data. This, in turn, has led to a rise in the number of cyber crimes, ranging from minor breaches to global-scale attacks impacting billions of users – such as in the case of Yahoo. Within the U.S. alone, 1802 cases of data compromise were reported in 2022. This was a marked increase from the 447 cases reported a decade prior. The high price of data protection As of 2022, the average cost of a single data breach across all industries worldwide stood at around 4.35 million U.S. dollars. This was found to be most costly in the healthcare sector, with each leak reported to have cost the affected party a hefty 10.1 million U.S. dollars. The financial segment followed closely behind. Here, each breach resulted in a loss of approximately 6 million U.S. dollars - 1.5 million more than the global average.

In 2024, manufacturing saw the highest share of cyberattacks among the leading industries worldwide. During the examined year, manufacturing companies encountered more than a quarter of the total cyberattacks. Organizations in the finance and insurance followed, with around 23 percent. Professional, business, and consumer services ranked third, with 18 percent of reported cyberattacks. Manufacturing industry and cyberattacks The industry of manufacturing has been in the center of cyberattacks in a long time. The share of cyberattacks targeting organizations in this sector in 2018 was at 10 percent, while in 2024, it amounted to 26 percent. The situation is even more compliacted when we look at the cyber vulnerabilities found in this sector. In 2024, critical vulnerabilities in manufacturing companies lasted 205 days on average. IT perspective and prevention With recent technology developments, cybersecurity is crucial to an organization’s success. Realizing this, companies have been gradually increasing cybersecurity investments. Thus, in 2024, the cybersecurity budget worldwide was forecast to increase to nearly 283 billion U.S. dollars. Roughly nine in ten board directors of companies worldwide in professional services and media and entertainment industries say they expect an increase in the cybersecurity budget.