• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, Yesterday

Data breaches are growing at a slightly faster pace -- topping last year’s totals during the first half. And they were largely caused by cyberattacks that could harm both email senders and recipients, judging by a report from the Identity Theft Resource Center. 

Of 1,732 data compromises reported in the first half of 2025, the study says, 1,348 were caused by malicious actors and affected 114.5 million victims, and 65.7 million victim notices were sent. 

“The broader cybersecurity landscape in 2025 is marked by the continued rise of AI-powered phishing attacks, which are more sophisticated and harder to detect,” the study notes. Moreover, of 1,191 breach notifications sent, 69% lacked details about the attack vector.

Still, the number of notifications sent in first-half 2025 represented only 12.2% of the total for 2024. 

Meanwhile, there were 3,155 compromises from all causes in the entire year of 2024. The H1 2025 number is 54.9% of that total. 

Of the H1 total, 129 breaches were caused by system and human errors. Another 34 resulted from physical attacks, while 79% were driven by supply-chain attacks -- a growing threat that affected 690 entities.

Bringing it up to date, July saw 317 total compromises, with the top ones related to healthcare — those of Anne Arundel Dermatology, P.A., the Radiology Associates of Richmond, Inc and the Alcohol & Drug testing service.