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Rising Data Breach Rates in 2008

August 11, 2008 – 1:14 pm

Despite the growing awareness of the threat of identity theft and all the measures taken against it, ID theft is actually increasing at alarming rates. According to reports from the Identity Theft Resource Center, there were over 340 reported data breaches in the past year. This represents a 69% increase from the number reported last year. The actual extent of many of these incidents is unknown, but many of the recent data breaches involve the exposure of thousands of identities. Many incidents also involve the data of multiple companies but are reported as a single incident. The actual number of incidents is believed to be much higher, but many companies fail to report data breaches for fear of negative publicity.

While most people commonly see online transactions as the main source of danger for identity theft, the majority of identity theft is done with information taken from other venues. While businesses in general are the most common targets for identity thieves, they only represent about 1/3 of the annual data breaches. The data breaches reported this year show a surprising ratio: businesses (36.8%), education (21.3%), government (17.0%), medical (14.9%), and finally financial (10.0%). The majority of this year’s data breaches actually occurred outside the business sector. Educational, governmental, and medical institutions are becoming favorite targets.

Identity thieves are constantly prying into secure data in search of our personal information, but the most common methods of data breaches are mobile data, insider theft, accidental exposure, subcontractor theft, and hacking. Mobile data storage, such as laptops and thumb drives, is the preferred target for identity thieves, representing 20.2% of this year’s data breaches. 15.8% were cases where inside employees stole personal data they had access to. 15.2% of data breaches were the result of accidental exposure, such as inadvertently posting data online or improper disposal methods. 13.5% were exposed by second party subcontractors who were granted access to information. And finally hacking accounts for 11.7% of this year’s data breaches.

With so much personal information already in the hands of identity thieves, it is no wonder so many people are turning to LifeLock to protect their identities. Life lock ensures that even if your identity falls into the wrong hands, you will not have to fear losing anything to identity theft.

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