and that’s just in one state…

https://www.databreaches.net/washington-state-data-breaches-in-2021-analysis/

Washington State Data Breaches in 2021 – Analysis

The Washington State Attorney General report on data breaches reported to their office in 2021 shows a significant increase over previous years. No surprise there, right From the Executive Summary:

• 2021 set a new record for the highest number of data breach notices sent to Washingtonians (6.3 million).

  • This represents approximately an 80% increase on the previous record of 3.5 million (2018).

  • Moreover, this is a nearly 500% increase over last year.

• Businesses, agencies and other entities 280 reported to our office — also a new record.

  • This represents about a 260% increase over the previous record of 78 (2017), and nearly five times last year’s total of 60 breaches.

• Cyberattacks and ransomware attacks spiked in 2021.

  • Cyberattacks caused 87.5% of all reported data breaches — up from 63% in 2020.

  • 150 notices cited ransomware in 2021 — more than the last 5 years combined. A significant proportion of these refer to the ransomware breach of Blackbaud

  • Ransomware attacks accounted for 61% of all cyberattacks (150 of 245) and more than half of all breaches (150 of 280).

• 2021 saw the first recorded mega breach since 2018.

  • The cyberattack targeted Accellion, a company that specializes in file sharing technology, resulting in the exposure of files in the possession of the Washington State Auditor’s Office. These files contained the personal information of approximately 1.3 million Washingtonians, including residents’ names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, bank account and routing numbers, addresses, and email.

  • This is the third reported mega breach since 2016.

Read the report.

Racing ahead?

https://www.insideprivacy.com/artificial-intelligence/u-s-ai-and-iot-legislative-update-year-end-2021-4/

U.S. AI and IoT Legislative Update – Year-End 2021

As 2021 comes to a close, we will be sharing the key legislative and regulatory updates for artificial intelligence (“AI”), the Internet of Things (“IoT”), connected and automated vehicles (“CAVs”), and privacy this month. Lawmakers introduced a range of proposals to regulate AI, IoT, CAVs, and privacy as well as appropriate funds to study developments in these emerging spaces. In addition, from developing a consumer labeling program for IoT devices to requiring the manufacturers and operators of CAVs to report crashes, federal agencies have promulgated new rules and issued guidance to promote consumer awareness and safety. We are providing this year-end round up in four parts. In this post, we detail IoT updates in Congress, the states, and federal agencies.

For the military history buff (and the autonomous AI in training)

https://www.freetech4teachers.com/2021/12/4000-maps-of-military-battles-and.html

4,000+ Maps of Military Battles and Campaigns

The Library of Congress housed hundreds of thousands of maps covering a huge array of topics from maps used by fire insurance companies to population density to maps of military battles and campaigns.

The LOC's collection of maps of military battles and campaigns contains more than 4,000 maps that are free to view, download, and reuse. The vast majority of the maps are from the 18th and 19th centuries although there are about 600 maps covering World War I and II.

You can browse through the collection according to date, location, subject, and language (most of the maps are in English or French). Once you've found a map that seems interesting, click on it to view more information about the cartographer and a little backstory on the map. Most of the maps can be downloaded as images and some can be downloaded as PDFs.