2018 — Year in review
Years are assigned by disclosure date, falling back to discovery, then occurrence date.
Breach Census recorded 326 confirmed incidents in 2018. That is down from 411 in 2017, a fall of 85 incidents (20.7%). Incidents are assigned to a year by disclosure date, falling back to discovery, then occurrence date, and totals for the most recent years can still grow as new sources are confirmed and published.
Retail was the most common sector, with 5 of the 22 incidents that had a sector assigned. The most common attack type among incidents with one recorded was Malware Deployment, in 21 incidents.
Regulators issued fines totaling 16,400,000 GBP across 1 action in 2018. The most-reported jurisdictions were US-CA (234), US-WA (61), and US-WI (23).
Regulator fines by currency
Totals are not summed across currencies.
| Currency | Actions | Total |
|---|---|---|
| GBP | 1 | 16,400,000 GBP |
By sector
| Sector | Confirmed incidents |
|---|---|
| Unclassified | 304 |
| Retail | 5 |
| Manufacturing | 4 |
| Transport | 3 |
| Pharma | 2 |
| Healthcare | 2 |
| Technology | 2 |
| Education | 1 |
| Finance | 1 |
| Hospitality | 1 |
| Professional Services | 1 |
Top jurisdictions
| Jurisdiction | Confirmed incidents |
|---|---|
| US-CA | 234 |
| US-WA | 61 |
| US-WI | 23 |
| US-DE | 7 |
| GB | 1 |
Questions and answers
How many confirmed data breaches were disclosed in 2018?
Breach Census recorded 326 confirmed data breach incidents for 2018, assigned by disclosure date, falling back to discovery, then occurrence date.
Which sector reported the most breaches in 2018?
Retail reported the most confirmed breaches in 2018, with 5 of the 22 incidents that had a sector assigned.