Gemalto releases findings of first half 2016 Breach Level Index

Singapore– September 20, 2016 – Gemalto (Euronext
NL0000400653 GTO), the world leader in digital security, today released the findings of the Breach Level Index revealing that data breaches
increased 15% in the first six months of 2016 compared to the last six months
of 2015. Worldwide, there were 974 reported data breaches and more than 554
million compromised data records in the first half of 2016, compared to 844
data breaches and

424
million compromised data records in the previous six months. In addition, 52%
percent of the data breaches in the first half of this year did not disclose
the number of compromised records at the time they were reported.

The
Breach Level Index is a global database that tracks data breaches and measures
their severity based on multiple dimensions, including the number of records
compromised, the type of data, the source of the breach, how the data was used,
and whether or not the data was encrypted. By assigning a severity score to
each breach, the Breach Level Index provides a comparative list of breaches,
distinguishing data breaches that are a not serious versus those that are truly
impactful.

According
to the Breach Level Index, more than 4.8 billion data records have been exposed
since 2013 when the index began benchmarking publicly disclosed data breaches.
For the first six months of 2016, identity theft was the leading type of data
breach, accounting for 64% of all data breaches, up from 53% in the previous
six months. Malicious outsiders were the leading source of data breaches,
accounting for 69% of breaches, up from 56% in the previous six months.

“Over the past twelve months hack ers have
continued to go after both low hanging fruit and unprotected sensitive personal
data that can be used to steal identities,” Jason
Hart, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Data Protection at Gemalto. “The
theft of user names and account affiliation may be irritating for consumers,
but the failure of organizations to
protect sensitive personal information and identities is a growing problem that
will have implications for consumer confidence in the digital services and
companies they entrust with their personal data.”

Across industries, the
healthcare industry accounted for 27% of data breaches and saw its number of
data breaches increase 25% compared to the previous six months. However,
healthcare represented just 5% of compromised data records versus 12% in the
previous six months. Government accounted for 14% of all data breaches, which
was the same as the previous six months, but represented 57% of compromised
records. Financial services companies accounted for 12% of all data breaches, a
4% decline compared to previous six months, but accounted for just 2% of
compromised data records. Retail accounted for 11% of data breaches, and
declined 6% versus the previous six months, and accounted for 3% of compromised
data records. Education

accounted
for 11% of data breaches and represented less than one percent of all
compromised records. All other industries represented 16% of data breaches and
16% of compromised data records.