Technology
Data Nugget: How Common is Identity Theft?
Quantifying the amount of identity theft out there.
It’s no surprise that U.S. data breaches hit a record high in 2014. According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, there were 783 data breaches, or an average of 15 breaches a week, last year—that’s a 27.5 percent increase from 2013. While the percentage of breaches exposing Social Security numbers has been declining since 2010, the proportion exposing credit card and debit card information has been on the increase over the past three years, after dropping sharply in 2012.
Exposed Social Security Numbers
2010: 62 percent
2011: 62 percent
2012: 48 percent
2013: 48 percent
2014: 41 percent
Exposed Credit Card/ Debit Card Information
2010: 26 percent
2011: 26 percent
2012: 14 percent
2013: 16 percent
2014: 18 percent
Source: Identity Theft Resource Center
(scyther5/ThinkStock)
Comments