The Rising Tide of Data Breaches

There are many reasons why Bitcoin fascinates me.  Even if I was to ignore the fact that the block chain provides endless opportunities for innovators to reimagine existing models of business and governance across vast swathes of modern life whilst simultaneously unleashing a wave of brand new possibilities that just didn’t exist pre-2008, I can’t think of any other subject that has ever dragged me down such a deep rabbit-hole. No matter how much you know about the subject, you learn something new every single day.

So once you catch this particular bug, you can’t help but feel compelled to investigate a wide range of areas in greater detail, from computer science, cryptography, economics, governance to name only a few. And one of these areas is undoubtedly data security.

I’ve written before about the worrying lack of concern that society shows for the digital exhaust we’re collectively leaving in our wake as the information age accelerates. This goes much further than simply ensuring financial privacy for the sake of security of ownership – there’s little doubt in my mind for example that losing personal data that takes the form of health records is worse, I stumbled across another fantastic infographic from the always-reliable ‘Information Is Beautiful’ site run by David McCandless.

If you’re in any doubt that data breaches are becoming an increasingly serious problem in a world in which we increasingly live more of our lives online, take a look through the interactive visualisation of ‘The World’s Biggest Data Breaches’.

Sobering, isn’t it?