The Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) has reported a significant increase in data breach victims for the second quarter (Q2) of 2024, tracking a total of 1,041,312,601 victims, up 1,170% from Q2 2023’s 81,958,874 victims – this is despite an actual decrease in the number of comprises (12%), suggesting the scale of the compromises that occured were of magnitutudes larger than those seen in Q1.

The ITRC – a non-profit dedicated to supporting identity crime victims – released its US data breach findings for Q2 and the first half (H1) of 2024, as part of the organisation’s H1 2024 Data Breach Analysis from publicly reported breaches in the US.

Despite a 12% decrease in the number of publicly reported data compromises in Q2 (732 incidents) compared to the previous quarter (838 incidents), the first half of 2024 saw a 14% increase in compromises, totalling 1,571 incidents compared to H1 2023’s record-breaking 3,203.

The victim count for H1 2024 reached 1,078,989,742, a 490% increase from H1 2023’s 182,645,409 victims. This rise was largely due to several large-scale data breaches reported or updated in Q2.

Notable examples include Prudential Financial, which revised its victim count from 36,000 in February 2024 to 2.5 million in June 2024, and Infosys McCamish System, which increased its estimate from approximately 84,000 to six million victims.

Additionally, credential stuffing attacks on Snowflake cloud service customers accounted for over 900 million victims reported in Q2 alone. It is important to note that the over 1 billion victim count for H1 does not include those affected by the Change Healthcare supply chain attack, which is expected to impact a significant number of U.S. residents.

The H1 2024 Data Breach Report & Analysis also revealed that financial services experienced a 67% year-over-year increase in attacks, making it the most compromised industry in H1 2024, followed by healthcare.

Further, while compromises in ten of the sixteen industries tracked by the ITRC increased, the healthcare sector saw a 37% decrease in breaches, marking its fall from the most targeted industry for the first time in six years.

Finally, the theft of Driver’s License information saw a notable rise, with such data stolen in 25% of breaches in H1 2024, reflecting its increased use for identity verification in various transactions post-pandemic.

This trend saw the number of breaches involving driver’s license data grow from 198 in full-year 2019 to 636 in 2023, and 308 through 30 June 2024.

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Eva Velasquez, president and CEO of the ITRC, commented: “In some cases, such as the number of organisations impacted by supply chain attacks and the number of entities that did not list the root cause of a breach, the trends accelerated through the first half of the year,” she explained.

“The takeaway from this report is simple: Every person, business, institution and government agency must view data and identity protection with a greater sense of urgency.”