The research comes from the new Data Breach Report issued by security analytics firm, Risk Based Security.
It is believed that the reporting surge could be down to more robust data protection frameworks introduced over the past twelve months, such as the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which was implemented on May 25th 2018.
Within a compendium of stiffer guidelines on data handling and storage practices, the legislation forces businesses to be more transparent and accountable regarding the personal and private information that gets processed.
The journey to compliance with the new laws has not been a smooth one, as countless data breach incidents over recent times have highlighted, each one illustrating new ways in which firms can do more to shore up their security.
The Risk Based Security research also found that the number of exposed records increased by 28.9% for the first quarter of this year, and already in 2019 global industries have witnessed breaches that have compromised the records of 100 million or more records.
The number of data breaches reported through until March 31st travelled in a similar direction, with 1.9 billion records being exposed as a result.
On average, it took 43 days for data breaches to be disclosed, after being discovered, for the first quarter of this year. More alarmingly, the study found that organisations discovering the breach via external sources took 74 days to notify the public.
Data breaches through third party agents was also found to be problematic, with 49 incidents of this nature taking place over the same time period.
The full report can be viewed on the Risk Based Security website.
