Data Breaches in Education Drastically Increase in 2017

According to a new international report, the number of lost, stolen or compromised data records is up 164 percent in the first six months of this year compared to the last half of 2016. Though accounting for a fraction of all breaches, the number of breaches has drastically increased for education.

"This is the result of a malicious insider attack compromising millions of records from one of China’s largest comprehensive private educational companies," according to information released by Gemalto. Other findings from this report state that North America is one of the biggest target around the globe for breaches – the overwhelming majority of which were against institutions in the United States. With identify theft being one of the top reasons for breaches, malicious outsiders were found to be the primary source of these breaches. From these breaches, further implications can be drawn that can potentially impact the field of education at large in North America.

Gemalto (2017). Poor internal security practices take a toll: Findings from the first half of 2017 breach level index. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Gemalto. http://breachlevelindex.com/assets/Breach-Level-Index-Report-H1-2017-Gemalto.pdf