A total of 2.6 billion data records were stolen, lost, or exposed around the world last year, according to the 2018 Gemalto Breach Level Index report. That represented an 88 percent surge compared with the previous year. The number of breaches (1765) actually decreased by 11 percent. Human error to blame in the majority of cases, with 1.9 billion records exposed due to accidental loss through improper disposal of records, misconfigured databases and other unintended security issues. Australian companies hoping to stay out of the data-breach spotlight would be well advised to focus their remediation efforts.”]