The Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) has released its Q1 2024 Data Breach Report, revealing alarming statistics about the state of data security. According to the report, data compromises have surged by 90% compared to Q1 2023, with a total of 841 publicly reported data breaches in the first quarter of 2024. Despite the significant increase in data breaches, there has been a notable decrease of 72% in the number of victims, with 24,474,351 individuals affected by these breaches.
One of the most concerning findings of the report is the rise in healthcare data breaches, which increased by 53% compared to Q1 2023. Although healthcare dropped to the second most attacked industry in Q1 2024, behind financial services, it still experienced a substantial increase in the number of breaches. However, there was a silver lining in the data, as the number of victims in healthcare breaches decreased by 57.2% from the previous year.
Supply chain attacks also witnessed a significant uptick, with the number of organizations impacted more than tripling in Q1 2024 compared to the same period in 2023. Cyberattacks remained the leading cause of data breaches, followed by phishing/smishing/BEC attacks and system and human error.
Eva Velasquez, President and CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center, expressed concern over the dramatic increase in data compromises. However, she also highlighted a positive trend of decreasing victim numbers, which she attributed to identity criminals adopting more targeted attack tactics. Velasquez emphasized the importance of businesses and consumers prioritizing good password hygiene and transitioning to more secure authentication methods like Passkeys to mitigate the risk of data breaches.
