The news: Consumer confidence in online organizations’ ability to protect their data is misaligned with reality, per VentureBeat.

Data vulnerability at an all-time high: The 2022 Thales Consumer Digital Trust Index, which surveyed 21,000 respondents across 11 countries and five continents, uncovered the latest global data breach trends and their effects on consumer trust across various industries.

• While 33% of consumers globally have been victims of a data breach, 82% continue to trust that online digital service providers will protect their personal data.
• The US, which has one of the highest percentages of consumers who are data breach victims (48%), also places a disproportionate percentage of consumer trust on security at 80%.
• In comparison, other regions have comparatively lower consumer trust on security. Germany’s consumer trust sits at 23% and Australia and the UK at 20%. All three experience fewer breaches than the US. 

Ransomware caused a massive email outage at Rackspace last week, locking thousands of customers out of their email. The majority of affected consumers are small to midsize businesses whose ransomed email archives could contain personal data and business information worth billions of dollars. 

By the numbers: Data breaches, phishing scams, and ransomware incidents are all on the rise.

• Among US teens and adults one-third were hacked or scammed recently, and 15% had a social media account hacked in the past year as of Q1 2022. In the same time frame, 13% had a credit card hacked and 10% fell for an online scam.
• One in 40 organizations is targeted by a ransomware attack weekly, with government, military, education, research, and healthcare industries the most targeted, per Check Point Research (CPR), a 32% YoY increase.
• More than 25% of organizations expect double-digit growth in cybersecurity budgets in 2022, per PwC’s 2022 Global Digital Trust Insights report.
• The average cost of a healthcare data breach is $10.1 million per incident, which is a 9.4% increase from 2021, per IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach 2022 report.
• 21% of consumers stopped using companies that suffered a data breach, and 42% of those requested providers delete their information.

The bigger picture: The amount of consumer trust is disproportionate to the current reality of surging cybersecurity threats and breaches, which aren’t only becoming more common, they are taking longer to resolve.

• Surging cybersecurity threats will result in more losses for businesses and consumers unless adjustments are made in the perception of the situation.
• Continued training, cybersecurity enforcement, multi-factor authentication, and a proactive approach can help better protect organizations and individual users and their data. 

This article originally appeared in Insider Intelligence's Connectivity & Tech Briefing—a daily recap of top stories reshaping the technology industry. Subscribe to have more hard-hitting takeaways delivered to your inbox daily.

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