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More than six billion records have been hacked in 2017, surpassing the number of personal, financial or medical records compromised overall in 2016. According to a mid-year report from Richmond-based cybersecurity firm Risk Based Security, there have been 2,227 public data breaches as of June 30 this year.“It is stunning to see the steady increase in the number of breaches impacting one million or more records. In the first six months of 2013, 2014 and 2015, the number of these large breaches hovered in the mid-teens. Last year we saw that number jump to 28, and now, for the first six months of this year, we’re tracking 50 such incidents," says Inga Goddijn, Executive Vice President for Risk Based Security.Cybercriminals are targeting individuals' tax information at a higher rate than in previous years. In 2016, about 160 phishing campaigns successfully collected victims' W-2 information. This year, similar incidents have increased by 25 percent, including scams targeting human resource departments, payroll service providers and state employment agencies. America's Job Link Alliance in March fell victim to a multi-state data breach that exposed the birthdates, social security numbers, names and addresses of 5.5 million job seekers.Criminal data breaches are becoming more commonplace - it's estimated that they'll cost businesses a total of $8 trillion over the next five years, according to a report from U.K-based market intelligence firm Juniper Research last month.Small and medium-sized enterprises are most likely to be affected by cybercrime, since they typically spend less than $4,000 annually on online protection. Smaller businesses are also more likely to use outdated software, which makes their networks easier to infiltrate.Last year, 34 percent of US-based companies admitted to experiencing some type of security breach, but the percentage may be even higher - some businesses aren't willing to acknowledge network vulnerabilities that compromise the safety of consumer data.