Data breaches in 2015 are on pace to break records both in the number of breaches and records exposed, the San Diego-based Identity Theft Resource Center said.

In 2014, the number of U.S. data breaches tracked by ITRC hit a record high of 783, with 85,611,528 confirmed records exposed.

So far this year, as of June 30, the number of breaches captured on the ITRC report totaled 400 data incidents, one more than on June 30, 2014.

Additionally, 117,576,693 records had been confirmed to be at risk.

That is significant given the finding of IBM Cost of Data Breach Study conducted by Ponemon Institute, which reported the cost incurred for each lost or stolen record containing sensitive averaged $154.

ITRC reported a significant jump of about 85% in the number of breaches in the banking sector over the same period last year.

The biggest credit union breach so far this year took place at the $308 million Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Piedmont Advantage Credit Union, which notified its entire 46,000 membership in early March that one of its laptops containing personal information, including Social Security numbers, was missing.

Year-to-date, the five industry sectors broken down by ITRC based on the percentage of breaches were business with 40.3%, medical/healthcare at 34.8%, banking/credit/financial representing 10%, educational with 7.8% and government/military reporting 7.3%.

Based on the number of confirmed records, the medical/healthcare sector reported 100,926,229 records breached, government/military reported 15,391,057, educational had 724,318, banking/credit/financial reported 408,377 and business had 126,712.

The ITRC 2015 Breach Report was compiled using data breaches confirmed by various media sources and/or notification lists from state governmental agencies.

Some breaches were not included in the report because they do not yet have reported statistics or remain unconfirmed, the firm said.

Instant Insights /

Data Breaches on Record Pace for 2015

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