Data Protection: Awareness Through Images [INFOGRAPHIC]

Part of our work at The Identity Theft Resource Center, and part of why we share our data with PRIVATE WiFi’s audience as well, is to help educate consumers on preventing and resolving data breaches.

That’s why we’re so proud of our first, recently released infographic.

The ITRC has been tracking breaches since 2005, which has created a robust database of information from which to extract a larger picture of where we are headed in respect to data breaches. We took some of the most interesting statistics from our 2013 Data Breach Report and turned it into an image so that we could more easily spread the word. Images are often the best way to convey a message in simple and understandable format.

Why do we track data breaches? The answer is simple. Having your personal information exposed leaves you vulnerable to identity theft. The sooner you know about your information being breached, the sooner you can take proactive steps to protect yourself. It is also important to understand what TYPE of information has been exposed, because the mitigation response varies greatly and is dependent upon that factor.

The ITRC recorded 619 breaches on its 2013 Data Breach Report. We analyzed this information to pull out some statistics that help us understand the trends appearing in the field. Some of the key findings from that analysis which you can find in the infographic include:

• An increase of 30% over the number of breaches tracked in 2012.
• The healthcare sector accounted for 43% of the total breaches on this list.
• Hacking attacks continue to hold the number one spot for the method or type of breach, representing more than one-quarter (25.8%) of the data breaches for 2013.
• 47% of breaches included the exposure of a Social Security number.
• The number of records exposed in 2013 was 57,868,922.
• The banking sector had the lowest number of reported breaches coming in at 3.7% of the total.
• Insider theft, as a method of data breach, was 80% higher in 2013 than in 2012.

Hot Topic

Data breaches are a hot topic, and this is not an issue that will be resolved in the near future. By continuing to track these events and provide content such as this infographic we intend to help consumers further recognize the risk of having their data exposed.

You can view the full infographic below or click over to the ITRC’s Infographic Pinterest board. We encourage viewers to share the information with those around them in hopes that a larger part of the population will fully be aware of this important issue.