By Marcos Colon
The number of data records stolen worldwide in 2016 skyrocketed when compared to the previous year, according to a new study.
Digital security firm Gemalto’s recently released “Breach Level Index Report,” finds that 1,792 data breaches led to almost 1.4 billion data records being compromised in 2016, an increase of 86 percent when compared to 2015.
The report “tracks data breaches and measures their severity” based on factors that include number of records compromised, the type of data, source of the breach, and how the data was used, according to a release.
The study also found that identity theft was not only the leading type of data breach in 2016, but also accounted for nearly 60 percent of all data breaches.
