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Data Security Is Worsening: 2017 Was the

Worst Year Yet
Published on February 14, 2018

Daniel Solove Follow

477 9 134
Professor, GW Law School + CEO, TeachPrivacy + Organizer, P…

Every year, we hear about how climate change is worsening. It seems the same story is
happening with data security. Last year was the worst year in recorded data breach
history. More than 5,200 breaches were reported in 2017, with more than 7.8 billion
records compromised. By comparison, there are 7.6 billion people on Earth, so 2017
saw the number of records compromised surpass the total world population. Previously,
2016 was the record-holder with 6.3 billion records compromised. Are there any records
left that haven't been compromised?

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Major breaches and security incidents included the enormous Equifax breach of 145
million records, the Uber breach, and the NSA leaked tools, which spawned WannaCry
and other niceties. Click here for a collection of summaries of some of the more notable
breaches of 2017.

Note that all this involves the known and reported data breaches. For every known
reported data breach, there are probably many known unreported data breaches. Then
there are the unknown unreported data breaches, which are probably a staggering
number.

What lessons can be learned from all this? There is one big important lesson that 2017
has taught us, and it is this: We know what causes data breaches, but we are not making
progress in stopping them. What we're doing isn't working. This should be a wake-up
call. We can't keep doing what we're doing. Policymakers need to try a new approach.
But instead, we are just getting more doses of data breach notification laws, and
shortening notification time periods. These laws help inform us about the problem, but
they won't fix it. Despite countless breach catastrophe stories in the news, we're not
seeing a huge change in what organizations are doing to protect themselves.

But, hey, we're not waking up to climate change either. Maybe all the computers will be
underwater soon. As we float along, desperately clinging to driftwood, we will finally
be able to smile. The data security problem will have been resolved.

Daniel J. Solove is the John Marshall Harlan Research Professor of Law at
George Washington University Law School and the founder ofTeachPrivacy, a

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6/6/2018 Data Security Is Worsening: 2017 Was the Worst Year Yet | Daniel Solove | Pulse | LinkedIn

privacy awareness and security training company. He is the author of 10 books
and more than 50 articles. 

Professor Solove's Privacy + Security Training

Spot the Risks: Privacy and Security

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Daniel Solove
Professor, GW Law School + CEO, TeachPrivacy + Organizer, Privacy+Security Forum Follow
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IPTV PLAYER 3mo

IT Innovative Solutions - Developing unique ways of securing your Internet footprint.
ATM it's a free-for all, and seemingly the perpetrators have been harvesting data as if it was a given
right, and certainly an abuse of trust.

We believe public opinion will no doubt force change. Of course all of this will not happen without ade-
quate legislation in place, and with the ability to enforce such violations if such breaches continue.
Like Reply

Hsin Hsin Lin 4mo

IT inventor, artist, poet, composer
17 big cases in 2017 alone!!
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