SAN DIEGO—U.S. data breaches were down 23% in 2018 after hitting a record high in 2017; however, the amount of consumer personally identifiable information (PII) stolen was up 126%, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC).
Also of note from the ITRC's data:
- Of the five industry sectors tracked, the business category again saw the highest number of breaches – for the fourth year in a row – with 571.
- The medical/healthcare industry came in second place with 363 of the total number of breaches, but it had the highest rate of consumer exposure per breach.
- More than 446 million consumer records were exposed in 2018.