IBM Reports Fewer Records Breached in 2017 as Ransomware Escalates

The 2018 IBM X-Force Threat Intelligence Index reveals that 25 percent fewer records were breached in 2017 than in the prior year, but there is a big catch: The figure doesn't include records impacted by ransomware. IBM Security announced its 2018 X-Force Threat Intelligence Index on April 4, revealing that the number of breached records in 2017 was actually less than what was reported for 2016. According to IBM's analysis, 2.9 billion records were breached in 2017, down 25 percent from the 4 billion stolen customer data records in 2016. The decline in the number of reported data records that were stolen in breaches, however, is not an indication that cyber-crime has declined, but rather that cyber-crime has shifted.