A Brief Overview of Data Breaches and Identity Theft


Data theft is a significant concern for individual citizens, businesses, government entities, and other types of enterprises. The Federal Trade Commission, for example, indicated that one out of 33 people may have their identity stolen within the next year. What follows are a few details about identity and other types of data theft.

A Brief Overview of Identity Theft

Every year, identity theft, which is considered to be the fastest-growing crime in the United States, amounts to a $50-billion industry. Unfortunately, this industry continues to expand in scope. Contrary to what many people may believe, almost 90% of these thefts occur when criminals have access to print rather than online information.

Given the total number of cases reported, the most common form of identity theft is government documents and benefits fraud, per the National Criminal Justice Reference Service. This type of fraud comprises 34% of the total amount of cases. From 2015 to 2016, for instance, there was a 16% increase in identity theft. During 2016 alone, approximately one out of every 16 adults within the country were victims of this specific crime.

A Brief Overview of Other Types of Data Theft

When law firm BakerHostetler released its 2015 Data Security Incident Response Report, this also underscored the incidence of paper record theft. In 2014, the firm determined that one-in-five breaches that they handled were related to paper rather than online records.

During 2015, businesses, along with medical and healthcare facilities, experienced significant data breaches. Due to businesses experiencing 312 data breaches, 16.2 million people were affected. Medical and healthcare facilities experienced 277 data breaches. As a result, 113 million people were affected by this occurrence.

Learn More About Professional Shredding Services

Whether your business or organization needs to shred sensitive documents on a regular basis or requires a one time document purge, you want to utilize the the best shredding services. Once you speak with a representative, you will be able to discuss the benefits of utilizing professional shredding services. If you do need to shred documents on a regular basis, it’s important to note that you can set up scheduled shredding. When you utilize scheduled shredding services, it will assist with preventing the theft of sensitive information.


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