ITRC says data breach notices in Q1 2023 lack actionable information for consumers

The latest data breach analysis published by the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) reveals a staggering increase in the number of data breaches “with no actionable information about the root cause” of the data security incidents in the first quarter of 2023.

With more than 89 million estimated victims of data compromises in Q1 2023, the latest data shows that six of the top 10 data breaches reported between January-March had no explanatory text regarding the root cause of the event. This is a 20% increase from Q4 2022.

In total, the ITRC reports 445 data compromises in Q1 2023, with healthcare, financial services, manufacturing, utilities and professional services among the top five compromised industries in the US.

The top five attack vectors of Q1 were also highlighted in the report and included:

• Cyberattacks – reported in 378 breaches
• System and human errors – 58 exposures
• Physical attacks – 7 breaches
• Supply chain attacks – 48 breaches

“Supply chain attacks continued to be a significant attack vector for threat actors seeking personal information in Q1,” the ITRC explained. “Of the 378 breaches attributed to cyberattacks, 53 were supply chain attacks compared to 54 ransomware attacks. Phishing continued to be the most common attack vector that led to a data breach (106) in Q1.”

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