The UK suffered the most data breaches in Europe in the first half of 2015, coming second globally only to the United States, according to new figures from Gemalto.
Digital security and SIM card vendor Breach Level Index (BLI) reports that there were 63 data breaches in the UK in the first six months of the year – a huge jump from second-place holder Germany (8) and third-place Netherlands (6).
However, only 8.3 million records were exposed in these breaches, which is just 3.4% of the global total of 246 million. This pales in comparison to the UK, which accounts for almost half (49%) of all records at risk, and Turkey (26%).
The 888 data breaches suffered globally in the first half of 2015 are a 10% increase on the same period a year earlier, although the number of records stolen fell to 41%, thanks to fewer large breaches, the report said.
However, moving in the same direction Anthem (79m), the US Office of Personnel Management (21m), and Turkey’s Directorate General of Population and Citizenship Affairs (50m) kept the numbers quite high.
While breach-related identity theft accounted for the vast majority of compromised records (75%), state-sponsored attackers have shown themselves to be increasingly effective.
Despite accounting for just 2% of breach incidents during the period, the nation’s public sector stole 41% of all compromised records, according to Gemalto.
Industrials, healthcare (34%) and government (31%) accounted for the vast majority of compromised records in the first half of the year, with retail seeing a massive drop – from 38% in the first six months of 2014 to just 4% during that period.
Paul Hampton, a security expert at Gemalto, warned that the findings outlined in the report are likely to be just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to global breaches – as they only capture those that have been publicly announced.
