Determinants of Data Breaches: A Categorization-Based Empirical Investigation

Data security breaches involving personal and sensitive information have significantly grown over the last few years. The stolen personal information-which includes social security number (SSN), medical records, date of birth, etc.-has been used to launch fraud against individuals and organizations. It already costs billions of dollars in the United States to detect and remediate consequences of security breaches which include identity theft frauds and lawsuits. It is estimated that on an average a company spends $2 million per data breach. With the increase in the rate of breaches, it has become equally important for organizations and individuals to understand the risks and take measures to safeguard personal information. This article investigates data security breaches, which accounted for about 26 million compromised records of personal information in the United States, to present the trends and risks that characterize the security breaches. The article categorizes the incident and loss trends into different dimensions including the industry, victim type, data type, and threats such as stolen computer, hacking and unauthorized access. The research can aid individuals and organizations understand the data breach, trends and evaluate their own risks in handling personal information, which will help them to make better and informed decisions to protect against data breaches.