The rate of disclosures of security incidents in 2015 continues at a pace that caused many to call 2013 and then 2014 “the year of the breach.” Most incidents are described publicly with attention-grabbing terms such as “hack” or “breach,” but those terms are inadequate to describe the diversity of incidents companies are facing. Though there is some speculation that “breach fatigue” is setting in, high-profile incidents continue to grab headlines. Privacy and data security issues are firmly entrenched as a significant public and regulatory concern and a risk/opportunity that executive leadership and boards of directors must confront.

In this climate of heightened awareness, the forensic investigation firms we work with release annual reports identifying trends from their prior year investigations. Because of the value we have found in these annual reports when working to help companies become better prepared to detect and respond to incidents, we decided to begin issuing our own annual reports to enhance the discussion of the nature of the threats faced by companies, as well as detection and response trends, and the consequences that follow. This inaugural 2015 BakerHostetler Security Incident Response report provides insights generated from our review of the more than 200 incidents on which BakerHostetler’s award-winning Privacy and Data Protection Team advised clients in 2014.