19% of Breach Incidents in 2009 from Stolen Computers

According to the public breach records, as recorded on DataLossDB, there have been 234 breach incidents so far in 2009 (as of June 18, 2009). So far, this is less than half the breach incidents for 2008 (642), a good sign. Of those breaches, 19% can be attributed to stolen laptops or computers.

It should be noted that these records are of recorded breach incidents and that they cover the number of incidents, not the number of records breached per incident. For example, the most recent data breach involving a stolen laptop was reported this week and affects 75,000 people.

Based on the 2009 statistics available, stolen computers account for the highest number of breaches this year. 16% of breaches can be attributed to stolen laptops while an additional 3% can be attributed to stolen computers. Another 5% can be attributed to lost media (which could include mobile phones or USB devices, for example). It's clear, from this, that mobile computers and devices are a huge threat to data security.

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Graph provided by Datalossdb.org