Mapping of data breaches in companies listed on the NYSE and NASDAQ: Insights and implications

• Published in: Results in engineering 2024-03, Vol.21, p.101893, Article 101893
• Main Authors: Pimenta Rodrigues, Gabriel Arquelau, Marques Serrano, André Luiz, de Oliveira Albuquerque, Robson, Mayumi Saiki, Gabriela, Santedicola Ribeiro, Sara, Sandoval Orozco, Ana Lucila, García Villalba, Luis Javier
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cybersecurity; Data analysis; Data breach; Privacy; Statistics
• ISSN: 2590-1230; 2590-1230
• DOI: 10.1016/j.rineng.2024.101893

The Internet of Things, Smart Devices, Information Systems, and Cloud Services have led to a digital transformation of companies. Such revolution has been accompanied by a huge amount of data available for companies, posing the growing challenge of data breaches. However, data breaches are not just a concern and complication for security experts; they also affect clients, stakeholders, organizations, and businesses, as stated by the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. Thus, this study provides insights into data breaches faced by companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. The study found that hacking/IT incidents are the forms of attack with greater impact in data breaches, followed by unauthorized internal disclosures. The frequency of data breaches, the magnitude of exposed records, and financial losses due to breached records are increasing rapidly. Data from the companies listed on the stock exchange is regarded as being highly valuable. This has become a significant lure for the misappropriation and pilferage of data. Addressing this anomaly, the paper employs statistical visualizations of the data to shed light on these incidents and assess their consequences on the affected companies and individuals whose data was compromised. This work aims to contribute to a comprehensive understanding of data breaches and empower organizations to safeguard against them proactively by conducting this multifaceted analysis, and also provides a brief qualitative risk assessment regarding the attack vectors. •Study contributes to a understanding of data breaches and empower organizations to safeguard against them.•Data analysis is performed to identify incident patterns related to data breaches.•Dataset is filtered to focus on breaches impacting NYSE and NASDAQ-listed companies.•Dataset includes 506 reported data breaches in the USA that targeted companies listed on the NYSE or NASDAQ for 2005-2015.