First off, Happy New Year!  2008 was a wild ride for many organizations that continue to struggle to keep their data secure.  Here’s an analysis of over 310 data loss incidents on record for 2008:

Businesses (B2B and B2C) beat out education, government, and medical fields (see Chart 1) as the leading sector for data loss with a combined total of over 55 million records lost.  The biggest industry losers were Finance, Technology, Federal, and Manufacturing.  Together, they accounted for over 77% of all records lost in 2008 - over 55 million (see Chart 2).

Chart 1

Retailers showed a decline in the number of leaks and records lost, year over year, in part because of the massive amount of data loss they incurred in 2007 with such incidents as the TJX breach.  Data loss from healthcare organizations and insurance providers rose by 126% and 140% respectively, year over year.

Chart 2

Stolen/lost laptops, hacks, and leaks over the web and email were among the top vectors of data loss in 2008 (see Chart 3).  Together, they accounted for more than 171 data loss incidents (55%) totaling over 15 million records lost.

Chart 3

2008 had fewer high profile data leaks but maintained the same volume over 2006 and 2007.  The downturn in the economy, cut backs in personnel, the failure of corporations, and decreased security investments have created the perfect circumstances for significant data loss in 2009.  Organizations will be forced to do more with less, and their dogged determination to hit revenue targets will increase their tolerance to risk.

Special thanks to the Data Loss Open Security Foundation for providing raw data.

- Dave