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.

During the third quarter of 2024, data breaches exposed more than *** million records worldwide. Since the first quarter of 2020, the highest number of data records were exposed in the first quarter of ***, more than *** million 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.

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.

The average cyber attack takes 280 days to identify and contain and it costs an average of about $3.86 million to deal with properly.

As of June 2025, the most significant data breach incident in the United States was the Yahoo data breach that dates back to 2013-2016. Impacting over three billion online users, this incident still remains one of the most significant data breaches worldwide. The second-biggest case was the January 2021 data breach at Microsoft, involving about 30 thousand companies in the United States and around 60 thousand companies around the world.

These cybersecurity statistics will help you understand the state of online security and give you a better idea of what it takes to protect yourself.

Did the COVID-19 pandemic really affect cybersecurity? Short answer – Yes. Cybercrime is up 600% due to COVID-19.

Between the third quarter of 2024 and the second quarter of 2025, the number of records exposed in data breaches in the United States decreased significantly. In the most recent measured period, over **** million records were reported as leaked, down from around ****** million in the third quarter of 2024.

As of January 2024, about ** percent of organizations in the United Kingdom reported experiencing a data breach accident once a month. A further ** percent said they had encountered a data breach event less than once a month in the past 12 months. Meanwhile, ** percent said they had experienced a data breach incident once a week.

In 2024, the financial services industry in the United States was the most targeted by cyberattacks, that resulted in data compromises. That year, financial institutions in the U.S. saw 737 data compromise incidents. On the other hand, in 2023, the number of data compromise incidents in the U.S. healthcare industry was much higher than in the latest measured year.

In this document, comprehensive datasets are presented to advance research on information security breaches. The datasets include data on disclosed information security breaches affecting S&P500 companies between 2020 and 2023, collected through manual search of the Internet. Overall, the datasets include 504 companies, with detailed information security breach and financial data available for 97 firms that experienced a disclosed information security breach. This document will describe the datasets in detail, explain the data collection procedure and shows the initial versions of the datasets. Contact at Tilburg University Francesco Lelli

The Cyber Security Breaches Survey, 2018 was run to understand organisations' approaches and attitudes to cyber security, and to understand their experience of cyber security breaches. Its aim was to support the Government by providing evidence that can inform policies which help to make Britain a safer place to do business online.

The data has been collected annually since 2016 to understand the views of organisations on cyber security. Data are collected on topics including online use; attitudes of organisations to cyber security and awareness of Government initiatives; approaches to cyber security (including investment and processes); incidences and impact of a cyber security breach or attack; and how breaches are dealt with by the organisation. This information helps to inform Government policy towards organisations, including what measures and initiatives should be taken to ensure that key messages get across to businesses and charities so that they are cyber secure.

The underlying data is useful for researchers to better understand the response across a range of organisations (rather than averages) and for wider comparability over time. The survey originally only covered businesses but was expanded to include charities from the 2018 survey onwards.

Data breaches cost companies and businesses a lot of money. The average cost of a data breach is $3.86 million.

In 2023, over ************ of respondents from the Americas region stated that their company perceived security breaches and data leaks as an important threat. This percentage was slightly lower for respondents from the Asia-Pacific and EMEA regions.

Over 95% of cybersecurity breaches occur as a result of human error.

The Cyber Security Breaches Survey, 2021 (CSBS) was run to understand organisations' approaches and attitudes to cyber security, and to understand their experience of cyber security breaches, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of the survey was to support the Government by providing evidence that can inform policies which help to make Britain a safer place to do business online. Details of changes for the 2021 survey can be found in the Technical Annex documentation.

These surveys have been conducted annually since 2016 to understand the views of UK organisations on cyber security. Data are collected on topics including online use; attitudes of organisations to cyber security and awareness of Government initiatives; approaches to cyber security (including investment and processes); incidences and impact of a cyber security breach or attack; and how breaches are dealt with by the organisation. This information helps to inform Government policy towards organisations, including how best to target key messages to businesses and charities so that they are cyber secure (and so that the UK is the safest place in the world to do business online). The study is funded by the DCMS as part of the National Cyber Security Programme.

The underlying data are useful for researchers to better understand the response across a range of organisations and for wider comparability over time. The survey originally only covered businesses but was expanded to include charities from the 2018 survey onwards. From 2020, the survey includes a sample of education institutions (primary and secondary schools, further and higher education). Please note that the UK Data Service only holds data from 2018 onwards.

Further information and additional publications can be found on the "http://GOV.UK" target="_blank"> GOV.UK Cyber Security Breaches Survey, 2021 webpage.

Data breaches cost companies considerably less had they deployed security automation. In 2024, a data breach cost an organization that extensively used security automation 3.84 million U.S. dollars on average, compared to 5.72 million U.S. dollars on average for an organization with no such deployment.

View Data Breach Notification Reports, which include how many breaches are reported each year and the number of affected residents.

Some industries are affected by cyber attacks more than others. These next cybersecurity statistics detail specifically who is affected by cyber-attacks and why they are.