Over 7.1 bn identities exposed in data breaches in last eight years: report

Over the last eight years, more than 7.1 billion identities had been exposed in data breaches globally, which is around the equivalent of one for every person on the planet, according to the findings of Symantec's Internet Security Threat Report released yesterday.

Almost 1.1 billion identities were stolen globally in 2016 alone, a big jump from the 563.8 million stolen in 2015. This was despite the fact that the number of data breaches actually declined between 2015 and 2016 from 1,211 to 1,209, according to the report.

There were 15 mega breaches, in which 10 million identities were stolen, an increase from 11 in 2014 and 13 in 2015.

Globally, the report put the US at the top of the list for both the number of breaches by country (1,023) and the number of identities stolen by country,  which is hardly surprising due to several reasons.

The US had a large population that had adopted high technology and a large number of companies, which have o comply with strict legal requirements around reporting data breaches.

France had reported only four data breaches in 2016, but it appeared in the second spot on the list for identities stolen. India ranked fifth in the tally with eight breaches. Cyber criminals have been taking to different methods to distribute traditional malware to users via new ways like social media.

Also, with mobile phones gaining popularity among users, hacker have been devising more attacks on phones than computers.

''Data breaches are often under-reported in territories where there are no legal requirements in place,'' Tarun Kaura, Symantec director (Solution Product Management) Asia Pacific and Japan, said.

In 2016 ransomware too was seen to escalate as a global problem and a lucrative business for criminals with a 36 per cent increase in ransomware attacks globally.

Symantec also found that 64 per cent of US ransomware victims were willing to pay a ransom, as against 34 per cent globally.