The amount of information exposed due to data breaches has hit a terrifying new high-water mark, according to findings released this week from Richmond, Virginia-based cyberanalytics firm Risk Based Security.  

Between January 1 and June 30 of this year, there were 2,227 publicly disclosed data breaches and they exposed more than 6 billion records, according to a mid-year report by the company. And although the number of breaches midway through 2017 is roughly the same as the first six months of 2015 and 2016, the total number of records compromised in the first half of 2017 is already higher than all of 2016, it said.

"It is stunning to see the steady increase in the number of breaches impacting one million or more records. In the first six months of 2013, 2014 and 2015, the number of these large breaches hovered in the mid-teens. Last year we saw that number jump to 28, and now, for the first six months of this year, we're tracking 50 such incidents," said Risk Based Security Executive Vice President Inga Goddijn. "Even more striking, in Q1 we had a new single largest breach disclosed, only to [be] replaced by yet another all-time largest breach in Q2."