The past 24 months have witnessed an unprecedented surge in data breaches across the United States, with cybercriminals systematically targeting critical infrastructure and sensitive data repositories. The landscape has been dominated by sophisticated ransomware attacks and third-party vendor compromises that have exposed billions of records.
The most devastating incident was the Change Healthcare ransomware attack in February 2024, which affected 192.7 million individuals and resulted in a staggering $3.1 billion response cost for UnitedHealth Group. This breach alone represents the largest healthcare data compromise in US history, exposing health insurance information, medical records, billing data, and government identification numbers.
The National Public Data breach stands as perhaps the most comprehensive identity theft disaster ever recorded, exposing 2.9 billion records containing personal information for approximately 272 million Americans. The breach compromised 60% of all historical Social Security numbers issued by the IRS, creating unprecedented risks for identity fraud and synthetic identity creation.
Educational institutions faced massive compromises, with PowerSchool's December 2024 breach affecting 72 million students and educators. Financial services companies weren't immune, as TransUnion and Farmers Insurance both suffered significant breaches through compromised vendor systems and inadequate access controls.
The data reveals four primary attack vectors: ransomware campaigns targeting critical infrastructure, exploitation of third-party vendor vulnerabilities, weak access control implementations, and compromised cloud service accounts. These incidents collectively demonstrate the urgent need for enhanced cybersecurity frameworks, comprehensive vendor risk management, and robust identity verification systems across all sectors, particularly financial services organizations that handle sensitive consumer data daily.