The number of breaches data that have been publicized during the first months of 2020 has been limited, but the number of files exposed has skyrocketed.
That’s the key finding of Risk Based Security ’s “ 2020 Mid-Year Data Breach QuickView Report .” The report explores how supply chain disruptions due to COVID-19have impacted data breach disclosure . Additionally, Risk Based Security explains the reason behind the alarming amount of records exposed.
The report includes breaches reported between January 1 and June 30.
There were 2,037 data breach reports as of June 30. That's a 52% decrease from the first half of 2019. It's also 19% down from the first half of 2018.
During this period (January-June 2020), 27 billion files. This exceeds, by 12 billion, the total number of files exposed during the whole of 2019.
For the large decrease from last year, the company said that in 2019, researchers collected a series of database leaks at the same time, which increased the number of breaches that occurred last year. In terms of the number of files exposed, there were three very large breaches, resulting in a huge amount of data being exposed.
Other findings of the report:
- The root cause of data exposure continues to be improperly configured databases and services.
- The two largest breaches ever reported came to light in the second quarter of 2020. These two breaches exposed 18 of the 27 billion records leaked in total.
- The number of exposed payment card details exceeded 90 million.
- A large amount of data also included social security/national ID numbers, bank account numbers, and dates of birth.
- Around 50% of data breaches were reported by the following sectors: IT companies, healthcare services, financial and insurance companies, and public administration.
- The first sector has reported 14.5% of total data breaches. Software providers, web hosting and other online services account for 86.5% of breaches in this sector.
- The healthcare sector reported 14,3% of the breaches.
“Any significant disruption to business creates more opportunities for mistakes to occur,” the researchers said. “For our part, we see that COVID-19 is having an impact on the information that is emerging about breaches. The decrease we are seeing this year may be due to disruptions in the information supply chain.”
“It’s surprising to see such a difference in data between the first six months of 2020 and the first six months of 2019.”
“The report highlights that even in the midst of a pandemic, organizations need to be very vigilant about security,” said Jake Kouns, CEO and co-founder of Risk Based Security.
