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.

This statistic shows the types of IT security threats or breaches experienced in SMEs in Denmark in 2017. According to the survey, 17 percent of interviewed Danish SMEs had experienced hacking of their website and/or IT system, and 22 percent had been victims of a phishing attack. Ten percent of the respondents had not experienced any IT security threats or breaches.

The statistic reveals the results of a survey of businesses worldwide regarding the cost of information security incidents they had detected in the 12 months prior to the survey. As of mid 2017, the average loss caused by IT security incident stood at 578 U.S. dollars.

Hurricane Sandy made U.S. landfall, coincident with astronomically high tides, near Atlantic City, New Jersey, on October 29, 2012. The storm, the largest on historical record in the Atlantic basin, affected an extensive area of the east coast of the United States. The highest waves and storm surge were focused along the heavily populated New York and New Jersey coasts. At the height of the storm, a record significant wave height of 9.6 meters (m) was recorded at the wave buoy offshore of Fire Island, New York. During the storm, an overwash channel opened a breach in the location of Old Inlet, in the Otis Pike High Dunes Wilderness Area. This breach is referred to as the Wilderness Breach (fig. 1). Fire Island, New York is the site of a long term coastal morphologic change and processes project conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). One of the objectives of the project was to understand the morphologic evolution of the barrier system on a variety of time scales (days - years - decades - centuries). In response to Hurricane Sandy, this effort continued with the intention of resolving storm impact and the response and recovery of the beach. The day before Hurricane Sandy made landfall (October 28, 2012), a USGS field team conducted differential global positioning system (DGPS) surveys at Fire Island to quantify the pre-storm morphologic state of the beach and dunes. The area was re-surveyed after the storm, as soon as access to the island was possible. In order to fully capture the recovery of the barrier system, the USGS Hurricane Sandy Supplemental Fire Island Study was established to include collection in the weeks, months, and years following the storm. As part of the USGS Hurricane Sandy Supplemental Fire Island Study, the beach is monitored periodically to enable better understanding of post-Hurricane Sandy recovery. The alongshore state of the beach is recorded using a DGPS to collect data around the mean high water elevation (MHW; 0.46 meters, North American Vertical Datum of 1988 [NAVD88]) to derive a shoreline, and the cross-shore response and recovery are measured along a series of 15 profiles. Monitoring continued in the weeks following Hurricane Sandy with additional monthly data collection through April 2013 and repeat surveys every 2–3 months thereafter until October 2014. Recurring surveys have been conducted through October 2017. Beginning in October 2014 the USGS also began collecting shoreline data at the Wilderness Breach. The shoreline data collected was an approximation of the MHW shoreline. The operator walked an estimated MHW elevation above the water line and below the berm crest, using knowledge of tides and local conditions to interpret a consistent shoreline. See below for survey collection dates for all data types. The shapefile, FIIS_Breach_Shorelines.shp, consists of Fire Island, NY breach shorelines collected by following an interpreted MHW shoreline as identified in the field. Oct 28 2012 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Nov 01 2012 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Nov 04 2012 (Cross-shore data only) Dec 01 2012 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Dec 12 2012 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Jan 10 2013 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Feb 13 2013 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Mar 13 2013 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Apr 09 2013 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Jun 24 2013 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Sep 18 2013 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Dec 03 2013 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Jan 29 2014 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Jun 11 2014 (Cross-shore data only) Sep 09 2014 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Oct 07 2014 (Cross-shore data/MHW Breach shoreline) Jan 21 2015 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data/Breach shoreline) Mar 19 2015 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) May 16 2015 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data/Breach shoreline) Set 28 2015 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data/Breach shoreline) Jan 21 2016 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Jan 25 2016 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Apr 06 2016 (Cross-shore data only) Apr 11 2016 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data/Breach shoreline) Jun 16 2016 (Cross-shore data only) Sep 27 2016 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data/Breach shoreline) Jan 24 2017 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data/Breach shoreline) May 23 2017 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data/Breach shoreline) Oct 17 2017 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data/Breach shoreline)

According to the results of a survey conducted in 2017, a majority of organizations had experienced cyber attacks on digital payments in the form of phishing, accounting for a response rate of approximately 40 percent. The least affected type of cyber attack was merchant fraud.

This statistic presents the result of a survey on the share of companies affected by cyberattacks in Germany from 2017 to 2024. During 2024, it was found that 81 percent of responding companies had experienced incidents concerning data theft, corporate espionage or sabotage.This was an increase of almost 10 percent compared to the previous year.

A survey carried out in 2021 revealed how important having more control over personal data is to adults in the United States. A third of respondents said this was extremely important to them, another third said it was very important, and roughly 24 percent said it was moderately important. Just two percent said having more control over personal data and how it is shared was not at all important to them.

Most Americans worry about falling victim to cybercrime

When asked in a 2020 survey to name crimes they were most afraid of, the majority of American respondents claimed to be more worried about cybercrimes than having their home broken into or car stolen. The top two concerns were having personal financial information stolen by hackers, and being the victim of identity theft. This is unsurprising, considering the rise in data breaches and exposed records over the past decade. In the United States alone, 1.6 billion data breaches were reported in 2017 - the highest figure to date. It is likely that this figure was somewhat impacted by the infamous Yahoo! data breach scandal that year, where 3 billion user accounts worldwide were compromised. This has been recognized as one of the largest breaches of its kind in history.

IT security market on the rise

As a direct result of increasing security demands and rising concerns, more companies than ever before are investing in cyber security, both in the form of services and technology. The information security technology market is booming, and as a result worldwide spend is predicted to hit nearly 175 billion U.S. dollars by 2024, a 50 billion dollar increase from one year prior.

According to a January 2021 survey of adults worldwide, 66 percent of total respondents agreed on feeling that tech companies hold too much control over their personal data, while only six percent expressed disagreement with the statement. Consumers based in Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States reported higher levels of concern over data control, with more than seven in ten people feeling that tech companies have too much control over their personal information. While surveyed consumers in Sweden, China, and Indonesia appeared to agree the least with the statement, still more than five in ten reported feeling that tech companies have too much control over their data.

Questionable ethics and security breaches put tech companies under scrutiny

Tech giants, and big tech in particular have been under focus in recent years when it comes to data privacy and consumer-related ethics. While Google has been recipient of not one, but a number of antitrust fines from the EU dating back to 2017, tech giant Yahoo fell victim to various data breaches that resulted in the exposure of 3 billion consumer records in total to date.

User skepticism is growing

No wonder public trust has faltered. The rise of ad-blockers, VPNs and privacy search engines show that consumers are more eager than ever to protect their data online. In the United States, alternative search engine DuckDuckGo saw a surge in popularity from April 2020 - around the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, over half of those surveyed in the UK said that the public exposure of recent data breaches had impacted their willingness to share personal information. The global pandemic has also hit the tech industry, with companies in the tourism sector taking the biggest blow. Booking.com laid off the highest number of employees during 2020, a total of 4375 members of staff.