A new forensic analysis of 141 million compromised files—drawn from 1,297 data breach incidents—shows that financial documents, including bank statements, and even cryptographic keys, are widely exposed. The findings reveal massive risk potential for fraud, identity theft, and unmitigated future system intrusion.
Cybersecurity firm Lab 1 analyzed approximately 141 million files across 1,297 breach cases, uncovering that financial documents appeared in 93 per cent of breaches—accounting for roughly 41 per cent of all exposed files.
Nearly half of the breaches contained full or partial bank statements, while more than one‑third exposed account numbers such as IBANs. Personally identifiable information such as emails and Social Security numbers appeared in about 82 per cent of cases, with U.S. SSNs found in more than half of breach events.
Alarmingly, cryptographic keys—used for system authentication and data encryption—were present in 18 per cent of breach incidents. Exposure of such keys dramatically heightens the risk of credential bypass, unauthorized system access, or encrypted data retrieval.
The study highlights a shift in cybercriminal strategy from stealing structured credentials to systematically mining unstructured data, which often includes the most valuable and reusable assets. The scale of compromise points to a growing trend of data-driven exploitation across multiple sectors.
