IT asset disposition, with data destruction experts IT Asset Management Group (IT-AMG), recently investigated the largest known data breaches since 2004 to determine which industries were the most vulnerable. Healthcare ranked third on their list.

The World's Biggest Data Breaches & Hacks list from Information is Beautiful was last updated in June 2026, displaying more than 500 breaches that included over 30,000 stolen records. The researchers compiled this data to form a list of the top 10 industries most likely to lose your data. These sectors accounted for nearly 95% of the breaches.

The healthcare industry has experienced 56 registered data breaches since 2004, following online companies (150 breaches) and governments (63). The data shows that healthcare has lost 426,893,795 records since 2004 and accounts for about 10% of all breaches. It is important to note that while the healthcare industry experienced smaller median breach sizes compared to most industries on the list, its high ranking can be attributed to its high incidence of breaches.