Data Breach Statistics By Facts, Market, Data Breach Cost, Violation Fines, Penalties, Settlements, Country, Industry And Data Points Leaked Types
Updated · Nov 08, 2024
WHAT WE HAVE ON THIS PAGE
- Introduction
- Editor’s Choice
- Data Breach Key Facts
- Global Data Security Market
- Average Data Breach Cost
- Largest Data Breach Violation Fines, Penalties, Settlements
- HealthCare Data Breach
- Data Breach By Data Points Leaked Types
- Data Breach Statistics By Age
- Data Law Awareness Rights By Country
- Number of Data Breaches by Industry
- Data Breaches By Country
- Financial And Reputational Impact Of Data Breach On Business
- Conclusion
Introduction
Data Breach Statistics: In the year 2024, data breaches pose a great risk all over the world, and criminals tend to use more advanced methods, making the attacks more frequent and wider. All types of organizations, regardless of their size and in all industries, have been victims of data breaches, often leading to loss of money and facing legal actions as well as damage to their names.
This paper looks at the current data breach statistics, looking into some important figures, costs, and trends to expect in the year 2024.
Editor’s Choice
- Data breach statistics reveal that In the first quarter of 2023, global data breaches resulted in the exposure of 6.41 million records, and millions were affected by these breaches.
- In 2023, a single data record posted an average loss of $165, whereas the total average cost of a data breach worldwide was $4.45 million.
- The data security market is vast and growing quickly. It is expected to be worth $6.86 billion in 2024 and an even larger $11.19 billion in the year 2028.
- Organizations with security automation incur fewer mutilation costs caused by a breach, at $3.84 million compared to $5.72 million where there is no security automation.
- The highest fine ever imposed for a data breach occurred in 2023, which was $1.19 billion, and was levied against Didi Global Company.
- Data breach statistics show that the number of healthcare data breaches is on the rise, with 491 of them occurring in the year 2024.
- Knowledge of data privacy regulation is not consistent across countries, with India scoring 67%.
- Data breaches happen mostly in Northern America, causing swift financial loss and huge damage to the company’s reputation.
- Data breach statistics show that is usually in high demand during the breaches is generally the customer’s personal identifiable information (PII), which constituted more than 52% of breaches in global entities in 2023.
- Employee PII was reported in nearly right in every ten breaches, while 76% of social engineering attacks resulted in compromised credentials.
- Financial and insurance industries faced the most threats, with a considerable percentage of malicious breaches recorded within these industries.
- Every single second, almost 68 records are being compromised somewhere around the world. And about 71% of the data breaches that happen around the world are for financial gain.
- By September 2023, 43% of the victims of data breaches were small companies.
Data Breach Key Facts
- On average, it takes about 295 days for any organization to discover the existence of a data breach, and the time to recover fully can be up to 197 days.
- Data breach statistics indicate that only in the first quarter of the year 2023, more than 6 million records of data breaches were lost globally.
- In 2023, approximately 79% of the total businesses surveyed reported to have been victims of phishing attacks, with the mean cost of a data breach being $4.45 Million. The average cost per record breached is $183.
- Roughly 75% of the total entities admitted that they experienced data breaches that greatly affected their business operations, while approximately 21% of all the folders available in a typical organization can be accessed by every employee.
- In 2023, the spending on global information security was predicted to be around US$ 1 billion. About 4 billion phishing emails are sent and received on a global scale every day.
- According to data breach statistics, health data breaches are causing financial losses and abuse, especially in the legal arena.
- Most of the time, when a data breach is detected, the company is accused of data protection failure, and appropriate authorities investigate that.
- It is necessary to install several protective measures to mitigate the risks of data breaches.
- Such measures may include employee education, interaction with new threats in time, data protection, and the use of more than one authentication mechanism. Regular updates of security tools, systems, and procedures, in turn, lead to the development of risk assessment and management.
Global Data Security Market
(Source: edgedelta.com)
- The proliferation of information-based applications that create, keep, and process huge amounts of data has made data security a crucial aspect, as the volumes of data needing to be secured have increased considerably.
- As a result, there is a high need for efficient, cost-effective data security measures. Data breach statistics estimated that the data security market will reach $6.86 billion by the end of 2024.
- If current trends continue, by 2028, it will grow to USD $11.19 billion, representing a 13.01% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for that period.
- This once again reinforces how there is a growing threat to a great and increasing volume of data from unpermitted intrusion, breach, or access.
Average Data Breach Cost
(Reference: statista.com)
- Firms that have embraced security automation have immensely reduced the costs and expenses incurred in data breaches.
- In 2024, organizations that fully adopted security automation reported an average cost of a data breach of $3.84 million. On the other hand, firms without any form of security automation incurred even higher costs, averaging $5.72 million per breach.
- These data breach statistics illustrate the advantage of security automation in financial terms because such systems can, at a minimum, identify, contain, and cure a breach in no time.
- In turn, this reduces the amount of time spent identifying and containing the breach, thus reducing the rightening financial impact.
- Given the fact that manual operation is limited and response time is significantly improved, it is easy to see how security automation is beneficial to organizations that would like to limit the costs and interruptions incurred during a data breach.
Largest Data Breach Violation Fines, Penalties, Settlements
(Reference: statista.com)
- Data breach statistics reveal that in September 2023, the largest penalty from any jurisdiction for a breach of data privacy laws was levied on Didi Global – a Chinese taxi-hailing corporation.
- In July 2022, the competent authority on data privacy matters in China announced a fine in the amount of 8.026 billion Chinese yuan, which is equivalent to roughly 1.19 billion U.S. dollars.
- The next largest financial penalty was delivered in 2021 to Amazon by the data protection authorities from Luxembourg, which was 877 million U.S. dollars.
- Prior to 2021, the record-breaking size of a penalty imposed in the case of a data breach was the fine of Equifax in 2019.
- The American credit reporting agency faced a minimum of 575 million dollar fine as a result of the data of almost 150 million people being affected by vulnerabilities that had not been patched.
HealthCare Data Breach
(Reference: statista.com)
- Between January and September of 2024, a total of 491 incidents of large-scale data breaches by U.S. healthcare organizations were reported, each impacting more than 500 records.
- This represents a radical change in the trends compared to figures ten years past, which provides an even more disturbing picture of the security of healthcare information.
- These data breach statistics show that the number of healthcare data breaches is on the rise, with 2023 recording the highest number of large data breaches at 745.
- The data illustrates the increasing threats and difficulties that the healthcare sector is confronting regarding the protection of patient data.
- The continuous increase in these occurrences points out the necessity for more robust data security policies in the healthcare sector to protect confidential data from being accessed illegally.
Data Breach By Data Points Leaked Types
(Reference: statista.com)
- For over one and a half decades between 2004 and July 2024, several instances of significant data compromise that the majority of American internet users had to deal with occurred, with the users’ passwords being the most commonly accessed information.
- In those 20 years, roughly two billion user account passwords have been stolen, emphasizing the severe threat that users’ online security is under next in line after passwords were first names, which also featured prominently among the data typically accessed in these breaches, with cities coming in close.
- This hierarchy is indicative of the type of information leaking in such intrusion, thus explaining why there have been calls for better password practices and enhanced safeguards to keep such information from prying eyes.
Data Breach Statistics By Age
(Reference: statista.com)
- According to data breach statistics conducted in May of 2024, about 56% of Americans are very unlikely to trust any organization with their personal information after suffering a data breach.
- This tendency was similar even among other age groups, with the majority of respondents stating they wouldn’t trust organizations out of a breach.
- For instance, 76% of adults aged 45-54 affirmed they would not share their personal information with a data breach-affected company.
- Also, around 50% of individuals aged between 25-44 affirmed that they would never obtain confidence in such companies in the future.
Data Law Awareness Rights By Country
(Source: edgedelta.com)
- The year 2023 has registered an average global population of 46% of internet users being aware of their country’s data privacy laws. India tops the chart globally, with 67% of the country’s internet users being aware of the data privacy legislation.
- In August 2023, a new law, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDPA), was introduced in India. It is based on the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
- On the other hand, Australia registers the lowest awareness rate, with only 26% of its internet users aware of the country’s data privacy laws, which are called the Privacy Act 1988.
Number of Data Breaches by Industry
(Reference: secureframe.com)
- Healthcare: Over the past few decades, the healthcare industry has been a major target for hackers, with approximately 080 incidents occurring. This, however, is not surprising given the black market for medical records, as they are very lucrative. The consequences of such breaches incorporate sensitive patient information, which raises a lot of privacy issues and regulation compliance measures.
- Financial Services, Banking & Insurance. Cyclically, about 1442 E-Crime incidents occur every day worldwide. It is also worth observing that every financial institution has attracted a very high degree of attention because high-value activities are undertaken in these institutions. If any breaches of security are made in this area, very humiliating costs and loss of reputation on the clients will be experienced.
- Manufacturing, Technology & Communication: Approximately 1299 instances. There has been an increase in breaches in the manufacturing sector, driven to some extent by the use of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, which can be an avenue for attackers without enhanced security measures.
- Education Institutions: Approximately 239 incidents. Management of students’ and staff’s personal information is a common practice in educational institutions, making them weak against attacks aimed at bringing down processes and accessing sensitive information.
- Retail: 270 trends in global order and transactions reliability existence of data breaches. Retailers have been victims of data breaches that have compromised customer’s payment information. One extreme case is the breach of Ticketmaster, which affected approximately over 500 million individuals.
Data Breaches By Country
(Source: secureframe.com)
- Data breach statistics show that the breach of data in 2023 is also regionally disparate, with certain countries having difficulties and threats.
- North America remains the most targeted region, suffering from 25% of all data breaches – globally. For instance, the United States alone recorded 1,000 such incidents within a year, the cost of which was estimated at $1 trillion.
- The growth rate of data breaches in Europe increased by 33% due to the implementation of GDPR, which affects the way companies respond to breaches. When looked at regionally, the average cost of a data breach in Europe is $3.8 million.
- Asian Pacific region was also affected as data breaches increased by 22%, with companies increasing their average recovery and mitigation costs by $4.2 million.
- In Latin America, data breaches were on the rise by 12% as there were more cases of ransomware, which cost the region $500 million in ransomware payments.
- The incidents of Data Breaches in the Middle East region increased by 7%.
Financial And Reputational Impact Of Data Breach On Business
- Data loss should not be viewed as an issue of simple accessibility – it is much more debilitating for businesses than that.
- It leads to financial loss, time wastage in excessive and tedious processes, and causes an interruption in processes, all of which include destroying relations, compromising sensitive information, freezing systems wrongfully sometimes, and many more that interfere with business.
- In the year 2023, data breach statistics that ensure policies to cover businesses against loss of income from data breaches on average cost the organizations $4.45 million.
- The lawyers also assist in dealing with any adverse consequences of the breach and any lawsuits that may arise.
- Forensic investigation services generally cost over $58,009. The duration of disruption of services as a result of security violation is dependent on breach level and the organization’s size; however, insignificant violation incurs costs in operation.
- For bigger corporations, costs associated with downtime may be even $1,467 within a single minute. In addition, based on the laws regarding the specific data that was breached, several fines and fees may also be imposed, not to mention expensive lawsuits from enraged customers or stakeholders.
- One of the best illustrations was the history of the $5 billion penalty levied on Facebook by the Federal Trade Commission following the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
- Recent data breach statistics indicate that businesses lost approximately $1.3 million in 2023 due to reputation damage, customer loss, and inability to continue business activities.
- Because this type of damage may take a long time to heal, such included long-term implications of data breaches are quite expensive.
Conclusion
The occurrences of data breach statistics in 2024 indicate the strong necessity for improvements in the security systems used by various industries and across regions. The monetary costs involved amount to trillions, indicating that the need for data safety has risen to a compulsory level.
In a world where even the underground world has highly sophisticated technology to reach its targets, companies must implement measures that will ensure that sensitive information is not leaked out to the public, customers lost, or expensive losses incurred as a result.
FAQ.
In 2024, the global average cost incurred as a result of a data breach will be USD 4.45 million. Nevertheless, corporations adopting security automation tend to incur lower organization breach costs, averaging 3.84 Million dollars, unlike the 5.72 million dollar average incurred by those who do not employ any automated security systems.
It has been noted that the healthcare, financial services, and manufacturing sectors are the most likely to suffer from data breaches. Data breaches in healthcare have become commonplace recently, with a lot of sensitive data on patients being exposed. This is the case with banks and underwriting institutions, which are often attacked for their confidential information.
As there have been many data breaches around the globe, personally identifiable information (PII) tends to be the most under-attack data element, standing at over 52% of all breaches. Compromisation of employee PII is also common, and attackers’ most preferred victim, passwords, are still under assault.
According to a report, it takes an average of 295 days for an organisation to detect a data compromise. It may take an additional 197 days to contain the breach, and this will depend on the organisation’s size and the degree of the breach.
Data breaches affect consumer trust in a very negative way. Almost 56% of Americans say they will not feel comfortable sharing sensitive information with a company that has experienced a breach before. In this regard, it is worth noting that the attitude is the worst among women aged 45-54, with 76 % mentioning that they will not trust a company that has had a data compromise.
Saisuman is a professional content writer specializing in health, law, and space-related articles. Her experience includes designing featured articles for websites and newsletters, as well as conducting detailed research for medical professionals and researchers. Passionate about languages since childhood, Saisuman can read, write, and speak in five different languages. Her love for languages and reading inspired her to pursue a career in writing. Saisuman holds a Master's in Business Administration with a focus on Human Resources and has worked in a Human Resources firm for a year. She was previously associated with a French international company. In addition to writing, Saisuman enjoys traveling and singing classical songs in her leisure time.
