2019 Trending as Worst Year on Record for Data Breaches

2019 likely will break a record for the most data breaches and exposed records ever, according to a new report.

There were 5,183 data breaches reported with 7.9 billion records exposed in just the first nine months of this year, according to Risk Based Security, which tracks publicly reported breaches. That's an increase of 33.3% in breaches and 112% in total records over the same period in 2018.

Some 3.1 billion of the exposed records came from six breaches between July 1 and Sept. 30, the report found.

"While malicious actors have been responsible for most incidents, it is accidental exposure of data on the Internet that has put the most records at risk," said Inga Goddjin, executive vice president of Risk Based Security. "This year over 6 billion records have been made freely accessible, thanks to misconfigured databases, backups, endpoints, and services. The widespread availability of tools useful for identifying such leaks coupled with an interest in reporting – as well as taking advantage of – these exposures has fueled the growth in the number of records compromised."

Read the full report here. 

Check out The Edge, Dark Reading's new section for features, threat data, and in-depth perspectives. Today's top story: "Account Fraud Harder to Detect as Criminals Move from Bots to 'Sweat Shops'."