2020 Q1 Data Breach QuickView Report: a 273% increase compared to Q1 2019

According to the latest report from Risk Based Security, publicly reported data breaches in the first quarter of 2020 have fallen significantly by 42% compared to 2019.

However, the amount of data leaked soared to 8.4 billion this quarter, an increase of 273% compared to the first quarter of 2019, setting a record for at least the same period since the detailed report began in 2005.

Inga Goddijn, Executive Vice President of Risk Based Security, said:

“Based on our experience, the decrease of publicly disclosed breaches in Q1 of 2020 should not be interpreted as a decline in breach activity. Quite the contrary. The turmoil that the pandemic has brought has created a unique opportunity for malicious actors and a stressful environment primed for mistakes. Once the dust settles, we anticipate the number of reported breaches will be on par with, if not exceed, 2019.

On average, hacking exposed an average of approximately 850,000 records per breach and most breaches originated from outside the organization. We are continually finding that simply meeting regulatory standards or contractual obligations do little to actually prevent a breach from occurring.”