A new report from Risk Based Security found there were 4,149 total breaches reported in 2016 that exposed more than 4.2 billion records.
To compile information for the report, Risk Based Security utilized its own web-based application, which scours the internet to aggregate information about data breaches around the world. In addition, Risk Based Security's researchers partnered with the Open Security Foundation to manually search news feeds and websites for breach information. The organization's database also includes information gleaned through the Freedom of Information Act.
Breaches in the report are categorized into five industries: business, education, government, medical and unknown.
Here are five things to know about Risk Based Security's "Data Breach QuickView Report."
1. The medical sector accounted for 9.2 percent of reported breaches. The business sector accounted for the largest portion — 51 percent — of reported breaches, followed by unknown (23.4 percent) and government (11.7 percent). The education sector accounted for 4.7 percent of breaches.
2. Approximately 0.3 percent of all records exposed were attributable to the medical sector. The business sector also accounted for the largest portion — 80.9 percent — of all records exposed. Approximately 13.1 percent were attributable to the unknown sector, 5.6 were attributable to the government sector and less than 0.1 percent were attributable to the education sector.
3. Breaches involving U.S. entities made up 47.5 percent of breaches. Approximately 1,971 breaches in 2016 involved U.S. entities.
4. One hundred twenty-three organizations reported numerous breaches during 2016. Approximately 37 percent of those organizations had three or more breaches throughout the year.
5. Slightly more than half — 50.4 percent — of breaches in 2016 exposed between one an 10,000 records. Around 37.2 of the breaches exposed between one and 1,000 records.