These incidents have exposed personal records of some 1.6 million of the state’s residents and the exposed records consisted of Social Security numbers and financial account information. The AG’s office attributed the release of the personal data primarily to hacking (40%) and inadvertent disclosure (24%).
Employee negligence accounted for 37% of all breaches, nearly as much as hacking. The number of incidents rose 60% year over year and the number of exposed records tripled, according to New York Attorney General (AG).
The most frequently acquired information in 2016 was Social Security numbers and financial account information, which together accounted for 81% of breaches in New York. Other records such as drivers license numbers (8%), date of birth (7%) and password/account information (2%) together accounted for nearly 1.3 million exposed personal records in 2016. Social Security numbers alone accounted for more than 42% of the exposed records.
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