Threats and data breaches are increasing at an alarming rate across the board, according to a new study commissioned by Apple Inc.

Breaches are at an all-time high, ransomware is on the rise and more dangerous than ever, and third-party and supply chain exploits are also getting more targeted, more effective and more pervasive, according to the study. “The Continued Threat to Personal Data: Key Factors Behind the 2023 Increase” was written by Dr. Stuart Madnick, an MIT professor.

The sheer number of breaches in the first nine months of 2023 already has outpaced any in previous years. In many English-speaking countries, breaches targeting U.S. corporations more than doubled when the first half of 2023 from the first half of 2022. Notable 2023 breaches include Honda Motor Co. Ltd. in June, India-based social media vendor Slick in February, and Microsoft Corp. in September.

Madnick found that more than 2.6 billion personal records have been obtained from breaches in 2021 and 2022, most of them from cloud-based data. Many of these attacks have targeted sensitive data such as the October breach of genetic information from 23andMe or student data from the Minneapolis public school system in March. Madnick’s report catalogs numerous others.

In May 2023, the number of ransomware victims listed on leak sites was almost three times higher than in May 2022, with the U.S. and U.K. the most frequent targets. Multipoint attacks use a variety of ways to collect ransoms such as data extortion.

Fortunately, the use of better end-to-end encryption tools, such as what was announced last week by Meta Platforms Inc.’s Messenger division, is increasing.

“In this landscape, no organization, and, by extension, no individual, is safe from a data breach,” Madnick writes in his report. “As long as organizations worldwide continue to store troves of valuable personal data in unencrypted form in the cloud, individuals remain at risk of having their personal data stolen, exploited, and exposed.”

Madnick says consumers are losing confidence in how governments protect their data. “Given the prevalence of data breaches and their real-life consequences on individuals, keeping personal data safe should be at the forefront of these organizations’ priorities,” he wrote.

Image: Nick Youngson/Pix4free