Digital Shadows Reveals A 50% Increase In Exposed Data In One Year
Misconfigured security controls could result in multiple breaches of GDPR with 2.3 billion exposed files.
Digital Shadows has released the findings of a new report from its Photon Research Team, “Too Much Information: The Sequel,” assessing the scale of inadvertent global data exposure. The team’s research revealed the exposure of 2.3 billion files across online file stores, including customer data such as passport scans and bank statements, as well as business information, such as credentials to company systems.
The exposure represents an increase of over 750 million files since the same study was carried out by Digital Shadows in 2018 - more than a 50% annual increase. The exposure – including 326 million records from the US, 98 million from the UK and 121 million from Germany – could put many companies in breach of GDPR regulation, which became effective one year ago. This is leaving them at risk of €20 million ($22 million) in fines / 4% of global turnover for failure to adequately protect the data of their customers.