The latest findings of the Gemalto Breach Level Index, reveals that 2.6 billion records were stolen, lost or exposed worldwide in 2017, an 88 per cent increase from 2016. While data breach incidents decreased by 11 per cent, 2017 was the first year publicly disclosed breaches surpassed more than two billion compromised data records since the Breach Level Index began tracking data breaches in 2013.

In total, over the past five years, nearly 10 billion records have been lost, stolen or exposed, with an average of five million records compromised every day. Of the 1,765 data breach incidents in 2017, identity theft represented the leading type of data breach, accounting for 69 per cent of all data breaches.

Malicious outsiders remained the number one cybersecurity threat last year at 72 per cent of all breach incidents, with companies in the healthcare, financial services and retail sectors were the primary targets for breaches last year.

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