Data breaches seem to be reported on a daily basis. Cyber security is at an all time high and for good reason. This interesting information came to us from Becher’s Health IT & CIO Review in their article, “791 data breaches so far in 2017: 6 things to know.”

There have been a record high of 791 data breaches tracked in the first half of the year, according to an Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) report. That means it has been more like four data breaches a day.

Some interesting tidbits were included in the report. For example, the health/medical industry experienced 179 breaches in the first half of the year, which accounts for 22.6 percent of all U.S. data breaches. California experienced the most data breaches at 110 in the first half of 2017.

At this rate, the ITRC predicts the number of breaches reported in 2017 could reach 1,500, which would be a 37 percent annual increase over 2016.

Melody K. Smith

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