The ITRC has released its H1 2024 Data Breach Report & Analysis, which shows there was over a billion data breach victims in Q2 2024!

Today, the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) released its H1 2024 Data Breach Report & Analysis, which shows that the number of data breach victims in H1 2024 (1,078,989,742) increased 490 percent compared to the first half of 2023 (182,645,409). Q2 2024 had over a billion data breach victims alone at 1,041,312,601 victims, which is 1,170 percent higher than Q2 2023 (81,958,874)! Believe it or not, that’s only the third most data breach victims in a quarter ever!

And that’s not all. The estimated H1 total of over a billion data breach victims count does not include victims of the Change Healthcare supply chain attack which company executives predict will impact “a substantial number” of U.S. residents. So, the number is likely higher than that.

Other findings in the H1 2024 Data Breach Report & Analysis include:

• There were 732 publicly reported data compromises in Q2, a 12 percent decrease compared to the previous Quarter (838). However, through the first half of the year, the ITRC tracked 1,571 compromises, putting 2024 14 percent higher compared to H1 2023 which ended in a record number of compromises (3,203).
• “Not Specified” remained the most reported cause of a cyberattack listed in breach notices issued in H1 2024 (68 percent).
• Attacks against Financial Services companies jumped 67 percent year-over-year, making it the most compromised industry in H1 2024, followed by healthcare companies. Reported compromises increased in ten (10) of the 16 industries tracked by the ITRC. However, compromises reported by healthcare entities decreased year-over-year by 37 percent. The decrease knocked healthcare from the most targeted industry to the second most frequently compromised industry for the first time in six years.

The 7-page PDF H1 2024 Data Breach Report & Analysis provides these and more key cyber-stats. Check it out here!

So, what do you think? Are you surprised that the numbers are that high, or that they aren’t worse? Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Image created using GPT-4’s Image Creator Powered by DALL-E, using the term “robots finding out their data has been breached”.

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