Several industries have been targeted with data breaches, and it's costing businesses in the US millions of dollars per breach in damages and recovery expenses. The good news is that while the number of breaches rises, so too does awareness and investment in cybersecurity measures. In 2024, five industries have been targeted more often than others.
1. Manufacturing
According to the IBM X-Force Threat Intelligence Index 2024, the most vulnerable industry to data breaching is manufacturing.
Manufacturing businesses are increasingly at risk of cyber threats, mainly from business partner and software supply chain attacks. These are some of the biggest cyber attacks, accounting for 15% and 12% respectively, of all cyber incidents.
2. Healthcare
In 2024, the healthcare sector has been facing serious challenges towards keeping patient data safe. In fact, the number of healthcare data breaches in the United States has gradually increased within the past few years.
One of the main reasons behind this rise in healthcare data breaches is the increasing digitization of medical records and the adoption of Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems. While this technology offers a number of benefits in terms of efficiency and accessibility, it also introduces new vulnerabilities that can be exploited by cyber criminals.
The other major issue is that healthcare organizations around the world often struggle with limited resources and outdated infrastructure. This makes it much easier for cyber criminals to access private patient data and cause serious problems.
3. Digital Agencies
Digital agencies store valuable customer data, including personal information and security logins. To minimize the risk and liability involved when managing client data, Agencies are investing more than ever before to get ahead of cybersecurity threats.
4. Retail and E-commerce
Over the past few years, we've seen some big data breaches in the retail sector, with one study pointing out that North America had the largest fraudulent transaction value of any regional market. Specifically, the region accounted for over 42% of global ecommerce fraud (by value) in 2023.
The research cited the vast volume of data breaches and the broad availability of stolen credit card information as the key risk factors in this market. 37% of all breaches involved payment card data information.
5. Tech Companies
While tech companies should naturally be better equipped to handle data breaches and cyber threats, the reality is that they are not immune to such incidents.
One of the primary reasons for this vulnerability is the vast amount of sensitive data that tech companies possess. From personal information to proprietary technology, these firms look after data that is highly valuable to cybercriminals. Additionally, the rapid pace of innovation in the tech industry means that new vulnerabilities are constantly emerging, challenging even the most advanced cybersecurity measures

Top 10 Data Breach Facts
Â
2,040 data breach class actions were filed in 2023 - nearly three times the number filed in 2022.
More than 1 billion people worldwide have had their data breached in the first half of the year in 2024.
In the U.S., there were 2,365 reported cyberattacks in 2023 with 343,338,964 victims.
Rockyou2024 data breach exposed nearly 10 billion passwords this year.
AT&T announced this year that 109 million US customer accounts were illegally downloaded in a data breach.Â
Ticketmaster in 2024 is notifying millions of customers about a data breach that could be one of the largest in North American history.
In 2023, 725 healthcare data breaches occurred and across those breaches, more than 133 million records were exposed or impermissibly disclosed.
The crypto currency industry lost over $1 billion to hacks and fraud in 2024.
Data breaches remain among the biggest concerns of company leaders worldwide.
The average data breach cost to companies in 2024 is $4.88 million per case on average. (According to IBM).
Â
Commentaires