Where did the breach go?

2010-01-07 by d2d Solar_flare

Where on earth did the breach go? We've asked ourselves, we've asked others, and we've been asked by many.

The simple answer is, we don't know! It could be anything, really, that has caused the dramatic decline in reported data loss incidents in 2009. Here are a few ideas:

  • The decline is media related. Data breaches are 'passé'.
  • Organizations are implementing better security.
  • Organizations aren't reporting incidents.
  • Solar Flares

None of these, with the exception of solar flares, is likely to be analyzable at first glance. But what about the first bullet?

Due to a lack in expertise of space weather, we decided to dive into the Google News archives, and things became interesting. Google News' timeline feature facilitates this kind of analysis. We looked through search result totals matching the query "data breach", per month, for 72 months (2004 through 2009). We then tossed the data into a graph, added a polynomial trend-line with an order of 6, and took a deep breath.

[read on and see the graphs here on this special page]


COMMENTS

by Anonymous on 2010-01-07 (about 2 years ago)

It's the economy. People aren't interested in things like "data breach" until they have jobs.

by Anonymous on 2010-01-11 (about 2 years ago)

Could it be that people are using personal devices for work related data more. The companies have lost track of where the data is. How would they know a breach occured to report it? I recieve more and more calls from friends family and just about anyone to fix their personal computers which they use for work also. These devices have everything imaginable and these people use them because companies and instituitions don't want to spend the money to give them a device and manage it properly.

So it may be the economy but I dont think people aren't interested.

by Anonymous on 2010-01-13 (about 2 years ago)

I just wrote a lengthier response to your post on our blog, but my person opinion is that much of the decline in declared losses is due to companies deliberately avoiding looking for breaches (unless it smacks them in the face). They are adopting a stick your head in the sand approach, and we've heard from prospective customers that their corporate counsel said to not do an assessment because they would then be aware that they had a problem.

Great writeup. Looking forward to more of them.

Christian
Palisade Systems

by Anonymous on 2010-01-25 (about 2 years ago)

Could it also be a general lack of respect for personal data? If data holders made the assumption that some of the data was their own they might be a bit more careful with it..

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