LIST OF DATA BREACHES IN 2020

20.1 billion
data records reported lost or stolen in 2020

Total number of records breached:

20,140,224,547
Cyber attack
1,562,850,225
Unknown Vulnerability
9,825,999 1,635,294,688
Unauthorised access Data breach
1,724,908 28,000,000
Ransomware Internal
attacks Error
7,369,533 16,792,201,954
Physical Malicious
theft/loss Insider
684,828 100,289,492

Phishing attacks Malware

516,292 77,030
Password breach
1,389,598 est
data b r e ac h e s i n 2 0 2 0
re 1,120 rep o r t e d
There we

Energy and Financial

Defence and Education Services 50
CHARITIES 157 Agribusiness 23
Aerospace 6
10

Professional Public
Manufacturing, Sector 205
Healthcare and Supply and services 96
Health Science
240 Construction 32

Transport and Unknown

ogy and Telecoms 12
Reta il , F o o d, T r av e l , T e c h n o l
15 Automotive 15
Hospitality and Media 158
Leisure 101

ac h e s by m o n t h :
number of bre
Month Data records breached Number of breaches

January 1,505,372,820 61

February 632,595,960 105

March 832,486,418 67

April 216,141,421 49

May 8,801,171,594 105

June 7,021,195,399 92

July 73,775,496 86

August 36,673,575 99

September 267,277,828 102

October 18,407,479 117

November 586,771,602 103

December 148,354,955 134

Increase on last year:

7,836,041,704 ( 64 ( 0
0

Cyber attacks caused the most security incidents,

accounting for 31% of all publicly recorded ones.

When it comes to the leading cause of breached records,

internal errors topped the board, causing 83% of them.

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This infographic is based on the data breaches known by IT Governance. The list is not definitive and was compiled to our best knowledge/
ability. The data is based on when breaches were reported, and not when the breach occurred.