Cyber security breaches in 2023 affected organizations across the US and beyond, driven largely by external actors and enabled by stolen or compromised credentials, often through web applications. Many incidents also involved phishing, while ransomware featured in a substantial share of analyzed breaches, and insider action remained a key factor in government cases. As reported totals rose sharply in the US, the impacts spread from healthcare and financial services to retail, carrying high average costs where lost business often dominates. The page that follows breaks down these patterns to explain who is most exposed, where breaches start, and how the damage is measured.
Key Takeaways
- Phishing was involved in 16% of breaches per Verizon 2023 DBIR.
- Stolen credentials facilitated 49% of breaches in 2023 Verizon DBIR.
- Ransomware was a factor in 24% of breaches analyzed in 2023.
- There were 8,295 reported data breaches in the US in 2023.
- Verizon's 2023 DBIR reported 16,216 security incidents analyzed, with 5,199 confirmed breaches.
- 83% of breaches involved external actors in 2023 per Verizon DBIR.
- The average global cost of a data breach in 2023 reached $4.45 million, a 15% increase over three years.
- In the US, the average cost of a data breach in 2023 was $9.44 million, the highest of any region.
- Healthcare organizations faced an average breach cost of $10.93 million in 2023, the most expensive industry.
- 22 billion records exposed in breaches worldwide in 2023.
- Equifax breach of 2017 exposed 147 million records.
- Yahoo's 2013 breach affected 3 billion accounts.
- Government breaches 40% from insider actions.
- Healthcare represented 20% of all US breaches in 2023.
- Financial services accounted for 15% of US data breaches in 2023.
Stolen credentials, phishing, and ransomware drove major increases in breaches, costing millions worldwide in 2023.
Related reading
01 · Category
Attack Vectors25 stats
01
Phishing was involved in 16% of breaches per Verizon 2023 DBIR.
02
Stolen credentials facilitated 49% of breaches in 2023 Verizon DBIR.
03
Ransomware was a factor in 24% of breaches analyzed in 2023.
04
Use of compromised credentials initial access in 63% of web app breaches.
05
Vulnerability exploitation used in 26% of initial access vectors 2023.
06
Supply chain compromise initial access in 15% of cases 2023 Verizon.
07
Social engineering involved in 18% of breaches 2023 Verizon DBIR.
08
Brute force attacks present in 8% of incidents 2023 Verizon.
09
Malware was used in 30% of confirmed breaches 2023.
10
80% of breaches involved brute force or lost/stolen credentials.
11
DDoS attacks preceded data breaches in 13% of cases 2023.
12
Insider threats caused 19% of breaches 2023 Verizon DBIR.
13
Phishing emails led to breaches in 44% of social engineering cases.
14
SQL injection vulnerabilities exploited in 8% of web app attacks.
15
74% of breaches exploitable by external attackers via known vulnerabilities.
16
Cloud misconfigurations led to 20% of cloud breaches in 2023 IBM.
17
Business email compromise (BEC) scams cost $2.9B in 2023.
18
91% of cyberattacks begin with phishing email.
19
Ransomware attacks grew 93% year-over-year in 2023.
20
MFA fatigue attacks succeeded in 50% of cases in MGM breach.
21
Third-party breaches caused 44% of incidents in 2023 IBM.
22
60% of healthcare breaches due to ransomware in 2023.
23
29% of financial breaches from phishing per Verizon.
24
Retail phishing success rate 3x higher than average.
25
Education sector 32% of breaches from stolen credentials.
02 · Category
Breach Incidents22 stats
01
There were 8,295 reported data breaches in the US in 2023.
02
Verizon's 2023 DBIR reported 16,216 security incidents analyzed, with 5,199 confirmed breaches.
03
83% of breaches involved external actors in 2023 per Verizon DBIR.
04
2023 saw a 72% increase in US data breaches compared to 2022.
05
MOVEit breaches affected over 60 million individuals in 2023.
06
3,205 organizations suffered ransomware attacks in 2023.
07
UK reported 2,216 cyber incidents to NCSC in 2023.
08
Australia had 1,193 data breach notifications in FY2023.
09
EU GDPR fines for breaches totaled €2.9 billion by end of 2023.
10
74% of breaches involved a human element in 2023 per Verizon.
11
State-sponsored attacks made up 12% of analyzed breaches in 2023 Verizon DBIR.
12
1,300+ data breaches reported in first half of 2023 alone in US.
13
Healthcare breaches numbered 540 in US 2023.
14
Financial sector saw 1,062 breaches in 2023 US.
15
Retail had 325 breaches in 2023 US.
16
Education sector reported 418 breaches in 2023 US.
17
Government agencies faced 247 breaches in 2023 US.
18
2022 had 1,802 US breaches, up 21% from 2021.
19
Q4 2023 saw record 230 US breaches in one quarter.
20
Canada reported 721 data breaches in 2023.
21
India saw over 1.6 million cyber attacks daily in 2023.
22
Brazil had 80,000+ cyber incidents reported in 2023.
03 · Category
Financial Impacts30 stats
01
The average global cost of a data breach in 2023 reached $4.45 million, a 15% increase over three years.
02
In the US, the average cost of a data breach in 2023 was $9.44 million, the highest of any region.
03
Healthcare organizations faced an average breach cost of $10.93 million in 2023, the most expensive industry.
04
Lost business was the largest cost component at 36% ($1.6 million on average) in 2023 breaches.
05
Breaches costing over $5 million affected 47% of organizations in 2023.
06
Customer PII breaches cost $205per record in 2023.
07
Organizations with extensive cloud use had breach costs 23.5% lower at $3.99 million average in 2023.
08
The mega breach threshold (50M+ records) average cost was $140 million in 2023.
09
Detection and escalation costs averaged $1.74 million per breach in 2023.
10
Post-breach response costs were $1.39 million on average in 2023.
11
Notification costs per breach averaged $0.31 million in 2023.
12
Lost business costs due to customer churn were $1.32 million average in 2023.
13
Average breach cost for financial services was $5.9 million in 2023.
14
Retail sector breach costs averaged $3.36 million in 2023.
15
Energy sector saw average breach costs of $5.47 million in 2023.
16
Public sector breach costs were $2.87 million average in 2023.
17
Manufacturing industry breach costs averaged $4.96 million in 2023.
18
Education sector had the lowest average breach cost at $3.83 million in 2023.
19
Breaches with stolen credentials cost $4.88 million average in 2023.
20
Phishing-related breaches cost $4.76 million on average in 2023.
21
Supply chain breaches cost $5.24 million average in 2023.
22
Average time to identify a breach was 204 days in 2023, contributing to higher costs.
23
Average time to contain a breach was 73 days in 2023.
24
Organizations using AI/security analytics had 40% lower breach costs in 2023.
25
Zero trust implementation reduced breach costs by 50% in 2023.
26
Incident response testing reduced costs by 38% in 2023 breaches.
27
Breaches in critical infrastructure cost $5.12 million average in 2023.
28
Ransomware breach costs averaged $5.13 million in 2023.
29
Business email compromise costs were $5.27 million average in 2023.
30
Global cybercrime costs projected to reach $10.5 trillion annually by 2025.
More related reading
04 · Category
Records Compromised21 stats
01
22 billion records exposed in breaches worldwide in 2023.
02
Equifax breach of 2017 exposed 147 million records.
03
Yahoo's 2013 breach affected 3 billion accounts.
04
MOVEit Transfer vulnerability exposed 62 million records in 2023.
05
MGM Resorts ransomware breach impacted 10.6 million guests in 2023.
06
Change Healthcare breach potentially affected one-third of Americans (100M+).
07
National Public Data breach exposed 2.9 billion records in 2024.
08
23andMe breach compromised data of 6.9 million users.
09
AT&T breach leaked call records of nearly all customers (109M).
10
Snowflake breaches across customers exposed 165 million records.
11
Optus breach in Australia exposed 10 million customer records.
12
Uber breach of 2022 affected 57 million users.
13
LinkedIn breach scraped 700 million user profiles.
14
Twitter (X) breach exposed 200 million user emails.
15
Colonial Pipeline ransomware impacted 100GB of data.
16
US healthcare breaches exposed 112 million records in 2023.
17
Financial services breaches exposed 253 million records in 2023 US.
18
Retail sector breaches compromised 92 million records in 2023.
19
Education breaches exposed 42 million records in 2023 US.
20
Government breaches affected 17 million records in 2023 US.
21
Healthcare sector accounted for 45% of records exposed in mega-breaches.
05 · Category
Sectors Affected21 stats
01
Government breaches 40% from insider actions.
02
Healthcare represented 20% of all US breaches in 2023.
03
Financial services accounted for 15% of US data breaches in 2023.
04
Retail sector saw 10% of total US breaches in 2023.
05
Education sector had 13% share of US breaches 2023.
06
Government and public administration 8% of breaches US 2023.
07
Manufacturing faced 12% higher breach likelihood than average.
08
Energy sector 18% of critical infrastructure incidents.
09
Transportation sector 9% of ransomware targets 2023.
10
82% of healthcare execs reported breaches in past year 2023.
11
Retail breach costs 20% below average due to quick detection.
12
Financial firms invested 15% of IT budget on security 2023.
13
Education had longest breach identification time at 295 days.
14
Public sector quickest containment at 57 days average.
15
Pharma industry 25% of intellectual property theft breaches.
16
Tech sector 22% of supply chain breaches 2023.
17
Hospitality like MGM saw operational downtime from ransomware.
18
Logistics firms 35% increase in attacks post-Colonial Pipeline.
19
Telecom breaches up 50% in 2023 due to SIM swapping.
20
Insurance sector 11% of all ransomware payments 2023.
21
Healthcare 54% paid ransomware in 2023 Sophos survey.
Interpretation
Sectors Affected Interpretation
In the sectors affected by cyber security breaches, the data shows government leads with 40% driven by insider actions while the rest of the US landscape is spread across healthcare at 20%, financial services at 15%, education at 13%, retail at 10%, and government and public administration at 8%.
report visual · Comparison
Cyber Security Breach Statistics statistics snapshot
Selected headline statistics from verified sources for a stable visual baseline.
Use of compromised credentials initial access in 63% of web app breaches.63%
Stolen credentials facilitated 49% of breaches in 2023 Verizon DBIR.49%
Vulnerability exploitation used in 26% of initial access vectors 2023.26%
Ransomware was a factor in 24% of breaches analyzed in 2023.24%
Phishing was involved in 16% of breaches per Verizon 2023 DBIR.16%
Supply chain compromise initial access in 15% of cases 2023 Verizon.15%
Reference
Cite This Report
This report is designed to be cited. We maintain stable URLs and versioned verification dates. Copy the format appropriate for your publication below.
APA
David Sutherland. (2026, February 13). Cyber Security Breach Statistics. Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/cyber-security-breach-statistics
MLA
David Sutherland. "Cyber Security Breach Statistics." Gitnux, 13 Feb 2026, https://gitnux.org/cyber-security-breach-statistics.
Chicago
David Sutherland. 2026. "Cyber Security Breach Statistics." Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/cyber-security-breach-statistics.
Sources & references
32 datasets cited across this report · attribution is report-level