It’s hard to imagine that hundreds of millions of digital records have been lost in the state of Ohio alone. It’s much harder to imagine then that California has lost over 5 billion. The U.S doesn’t just lead the world in data breaches, it dwarfs any other nation. Nearly two thirds of all data breaches have occurred in the U.S. The question is- how?

Above all else, human error leads to data breaches. One might expect that viruses or concentrated attacks are the causes of the issue. They can be, same as hardware issues or natural disasters. Although for the most part simple misclicks, improper training, these are what’s leading to data breaches. 

Not all breaches are made equal though. While the finance industry is the biggest and most obvious target for attacks. The transportation industry, for example, has a fraction of the data breaches. Data loss hits everyone, everywhere, but some industries and countries are taking the brunt of the damage. 

Data has been lost to various causes for generations. A library being destroyed is a data breach itself. Today technology just makes these organizations of knowledge much more formal. Data breaches are unavoidable, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be reduced. Moving towards less human error works to serve countries and individuals alike. A future of security isn’t unrealistic, just unlikely.