At 2018's halfway point, there were 668 breaches representing almost 23 million records exposed, according to reports from the San Diego-based Identity Theft Resource Center and Providence, R.I.-based CyberScout (formerly IDT911).

The number of U.S. data breaches tracked through July 2, 2018 was less than 2017's half-year high total of 791. However, this year, the approximately 22.5 million reported records exposed so far is almost double the 12.4 million records reported breached last year at this time (which came before Equifax's 145.5 million exposed records).

Here's how the breaches broke down by industry category:

• Business = 46%
• Medical/Healthcare = 27.1%
• Banking/Credit/Financial = 12.6%
• Government/Military = 7.3%
• Educational = 6.7%

What qualifies as a breach? "The ITRC defines a data breach as an incident in which an individual name plus a Social Security number, driver's license number, medical record or financial record (credit/debit cards included) is potentially put at risk because of exposure. This exposure can occur either electronically or in paper format. The ITRC will also capture breaches that do not, by the nature of the incident, trigger data breach notification laws. Generally, these breaches consist of the exposure of user names, emails and passwords without involving sensitive personal identifying information."