New York Attorney General’s Report on Data Breaches and their Escalating Costs on the Rise, Take Steps to Protect

A report detailing the growing number, complexity and costs of data breaches within the state of New York was issued recently by state Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman. The report reveals that the number of reported data security breaches in New York more than tripled in the eight year-period between 2006 and 2013. More than 5,000 breaches occurred in that time period, costing billions of dollars and exposing 22.5 million personal records of New Yorkers. The report titled “Information Exposed: Historical Examination of Data Security in New York State,” found that approximately 40% of the breaches were the result of hacking incidents. The report additionally indicated that hacking attacks were responsible for over 63% of total records exposed. The highest number of reported incidents occurred in 2013 with 7.3 million records of New Yorkers exposed in more than 900 data security breaches, at an estimated cost to New Yorkers of $1.37 Billion.