Two billion data records were stolen or lost in 2017 so far

Almost two billion data records were either lost or stolen in the first half of this year, according to a new report by Gemalto.

The company found that 1.9 billion records were lost or stolen during the first half of 2017 -- more than in the whole of last year, and equivalent to 10,439,560 records per day -- or roughly 3,000 whilst you read these few sentences.

There have been 918 reported data breaches in the first six months of this year, which is a jump from 815 that we had in the same period last year. Out of all those, 22 breaches have had more than a million records compromised. Keep in mind that we're only talking about breaches that have exact numbers.

More than half (52 percent) of all data breaches have had an "unknown" number of compromised records. The upcoming GDPR is set to eliminate this from happening, so Gemalto believes the number of disclosed breaches could "skyrocket."

"Cyber-attacks are still costing businesses in the UK time, money and investment to defend against and rectify. Despite this, there has been an overall decrease in reported data breaches in the UK in the last six months, signalling the ongoing efforts of businesses to improve their cybersecurity," commented Joe Pindar, director of product strategy, CTO at Gemalto.

"It’s important to remember that no business ever sets out to suffer a data breach, and that they are ultimately victims of the efforts of malicious attackers. With the UK Government’s newly proposed Data Protection bill aiming to implement GDPR into UK law, it’s time consumers and governments began to recognise the efforts of those businesses going the extra mile to keep their data secure. No matter how compliant a business is, or what measures they have in place, it only takes one mistake to allow a hacker access to vulnerable data."

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