Today Apple published an independent study conducted by Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Dr. Stuart Madnick that found clear and compelling proof that data breaches have become an epidemic, threatening sensitive and personal consumer data the world over. The total number of data breaches more than tripled between 2013 and 2022 — exposing 2.6 billion personal records in the past two years alone — and has continued to get worse in 2023. The findings underscore that strong protections against data breaches in the cloud, like end-to-end encryption, have only grown more essential since last year’s report and the launch of Advanced Data Protection for iCloud.

This year’s study, “The Continued Threat to Personal Data: Key Factors Behind the 2023 Increase,” demonstrates threats that had already reached historic levels — as shown in last year’s report, "The Rising Threat to Consumer Data in the Cloud" — continue to rise. Increasingly, companies across the technology industry are addressing these threats by implementing end-to-end encryption, as Apple did with last year’s launch of Advanced Data Protection for iCloud.

With Advanced Data Protection for iCloud, which uses end-to-end encryption to provide Apple’s highest level of cloud data security, users have the choice to further protect important iCloud data even in the case of a data breach. iCloud already protects 14 sensitive data categories using end-to-end encryption by default, including passwords in iCloud Keychain and Health data. For users who enable Advanced Data Protection for iCloud, the total number of data categories protected using end-to-end encryption rises to 23, including iCloud Backup, Notes, and Photos.