According to the 2013 Data Breach Fraud Impact Report: Mitigating a Rapidly Emerging Driver of Fraud, released by Javelin Strategy & Research, over 50 percent of fraud victims in 2012 were also data breach victims. Fraudsters are improving at mining large data sets at the same time as businesses and institutions of all types are facing an onslaught of data breaches. The Open Security Foundation reports an all-time high of 1,611 breaches in 2012, a 48 percent increase over 2011.
The report also analyzes several data breach case studies, including the South Carolina Department of Revenue (SCDOR) to project the fraud losses to consumers and institutions. As a result of the breach, the Social Security numbers of 3.6 million South Carolinians and 16,000 payment card numbers were exposed.
Javelin estimates the total resulting fraud losses at USD 5.2 billion for this breach alone, and USD 776 in out of pocket expenses for each affected consumer that suffers identity fraud.
The same research mentions that consumers should also wise up to the risks, while only 20 percent of people affected by data breaches enrolling in the free identity-protection services offered after the compromise was discovered.
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