The Breach Level Index is a global database that tracks data breaches and measures their severity based on multiple dimensions, including the number of records compromised, the type of data, the source of the breach, how the data was used, and whether or not the data was encrypted.
According to the index, 52% percent of the data breaches in the first half of this year did not disclose the number of compromised records at the time they were reported.
For the H1 of 2016, identity theft was the leading type of data breach, accounting for 64% of all data breaches, up from 53% in the previous six months. Malicious outsiders were the leading source of data breaches, accounting for 69% of breaches, up from 56% in the previous six months.
Across industries, government bodies accounted for 14% of all data breaches, which was the same as the previous six months, but represented 57% of compromised records. Financial services companies accounted for 12% of all data breaches, a 4% decline compared to previous six months, but accounted for just 2% of compromised data records. Retail accounted for 11% of data breaches, and declined 6% versus the previous six months, and accounted for 3% of compromised data records.
In terms of top three geographic regions for reported data breaches, 79% were in North America, 9% were in Europe, and 8% were in Asia-Pacific.
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