There were 662 data breaches in the United States in 2010, almost a 33 percent increase from 2009 according to a report by the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC). The 662 data breaches exposed a total of 16,167,542 records. It’s a seemingly staggering number, though the ITRC adamantly states in a press release that the statistic may in fact be drastically low.
The actual number is considerably higher because current regulations in the United States don’t require all data breaches to be disclosed, the group said. “Other than breaches reported by the media and a few progressive state Websites, there is little or no information available on many data breach events,” said the ITRC.
The Identity Theft Resource Center defines a breach as any event that potentially puts a person’s name, Social Security number, drivers license number, medical record or financial record (credit or debit card) potentially at risk either in electronic or paper format.
The 2010 report clearly shows that some companies listed the exact number of documents exposed in their incidents.
Other breaches, however, were not as transparent. Nearly half of all the data breaches did not indicate the number of potentially compromised records.
“It is clear that without a mandatory national reporting requirement, that many data breaches will continue to be unreported, or under-reported.”
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