SAN FRANCISCO (Legal Newsline) — California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris has announced a comprehensive report to the Stanford Cyber Initiative that details the nature of data breaches her office has dealt with over the past four years.
The report concludes between 2012 and 2015 there were 657 data breaches. These breaches led to the compromise of more than 49 million records of Californians’ personal information. There were 178 breaches that jeopardized 24 million records of Californians in the last year alone.
The report includes notes on the most common data breach type and explains how data breaches affect different industry sectors.
Along with the statistics, Harris provided recommendations for businesses and organizations that may help protect against data breaches. She points to a specific set of actions that organizations can take immediately to meet the state and federal mandates of reasonable security.
“Government and the private sector have a shared responsibility to safeguard consumers from threats to their privacy, finances, and personal security,” Harris said. “California is leading the nation with measures to prevent data breaches but we can do better. This report clearly articulates basic steps that businesses and organizations must take to comply with the law, reduce data breaches, and better protect the public and our national security.”