Revealed – the top states for data breaches

California has suffered more data breaches since 2005 since any other state, according to a new analysis by Comparitech.

Comparitech analyzed both the number of data breaches and the total number of records exposed from 2005 to the present. Key findings of the analysis included:

• California suffered the most data breaches – 1,777 since 2005. It also had the most records exposed at 5.6 billion. California was followed by New York (863 breaches), Texas (819), Florida (638) and Illinois (533).
• North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, West Virginia and Puerto Rico reported the fewest data breaches, with each having 33 or fewer over since 2005.
• Since 2005, 12,098 data breaches have occurred across the country, involving more than 11.1 billion records.
• The current cost of each lost or stolen record averages $150, amounting to more than $1.66 trillion lost since 2005.
• 2017 holds the record for most US data breaches in a year at 1,683.
• 2016 holds the record for number of records exposed at 4.6 billion.

“The number of breaches is not always proportionate to the number of records exposed,” Comparitech said. “In many cases, a single severe data breach accounts for the vast majority of records exposed in a state over the last decade.”