Report: Colleges impacted by Mass. data breaches
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While the Target Stores data breach in late 2013 garnered headlines, the company was not the only organization victimized by data breaches affecting Massachusetts Residents, according to a new report from the Patrick administration.
According to a report released Thursday by the state Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation (OCABR), the number of reported data breaches topped 1,800 in 2013, an increase of 59 percent over 2012, with close to 1.2 million Bay State residents impacted, the report said. Overall, though, the OCABR said that, excluding the Target breach, reports of breaches were down about 40 percent.
But even with numbers trending downward, there is still cause for companies to ensure the safety of information, especially as more turn to electronic records, the report suggested.
A whopping 88 percent of those breaches were related to compromised electronic records, such as those seen in the Target incident, which accounted for 947,000 of the impacted residents in 2013, according to the report.
Interestingly, the most significant year-over-year increase in reports came from the education sector, the report said. While educational institutions reported only 20 incidents of data breaches, 31,870 residents were impacted, a 611 percent increase from 2012.
The upsurge in data breaches within the education sector could be a sign that cybercriminals and hackers are targeting schools because of the vast amounts of information they store in their technology systems, including Social Security numbers of current and former students, the report said.
“It isn’t a surprise that the education sector was a target given the types of sensitive information that they collect for financial aid and admissions,” Undersecretary of Consumer Affairs Barbara Anthony said.
However, while retail made the news and colleges are increasingly targeted for breaches, the financial services industry accounted for 1,551, or 85 percent of the reports, impacting some 90,000 Massachusetts residents, the report said.
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