Are the breaches getting worse?

Yes. Almost 2 billion records were lost or stolen worldwide during the first half of this year, up 164 percent from the last half of 2016. IBM has found that the average cost of a single data breach is now $7.35 million in the U.S. The Equifax hack has already cost the company $4 billion in market value. Spending on cybersecurity is soaring as a result, and is expected to reach $90 billion this year and $113 billion by 2020, according to consulting firm Gartner. In 2015, a report by the Atlantic Council think tank and Zurich Insurance Group concluded that while the benefits of online technology will lead to an 8 percent increase in the size of the global economy between 2010 and 2030, the cost of security will start to outweigh the benefits around 2019.