North Carolina Reports Record Number of Cyber Breaches in 2019: Expert Analysis & Recommendations
In 2019, the state of North Carolina recorded a historic high in reported data breaches, exposing millions of residents' personal information and putting businesses of every size on notice. Craig Petronella, founder and CEO of Petronella Technology Group (PTG), provides expert analysis on what these numbers mean for businesses in Raleigh, Durham, the Research Triangle Park, and across the state, along with actionable recommendations for strengthening defenses before the next wave of attacks.
North Carolina's Breach Numbers Tell a Disturbing Story
The North Carolina Department of Justice reported a record-breaking number of data breaches in 2019, continuing a trend of year-over-year increases that had been accelerating for the previous five years. These statistics were not abstract figures in a government report. They represented real businesses in Raleigh, Durham, Charlotte, the Triad, and communities across the state that suffered real losses. Customer data was exposed, employee records were compromised, and intellectual property was stolen at a pace that outstripped most organizations' ability to respond.
The breach reports filed with the NC Attorney General's office revealed several alarming patterns. Healthcare organizations continued to be disproportionately targeted, with patient records commanding premium prices on dark web marketplaces. Financial services firms experienced sophisticated social engineering campaigns that bypassed traditional perimeter defenses. Small and mid-size businesses, which make up the vast majority of North Carolina's business landscape, were particularly vulnerable because they lacked the dedicated security staff and advanced monitoring tools that larger enterprises deploy. Many Triangle-area businesses reported that they did not even know they had been breached until weeks or months after the initial compromise, allowing attackers extended dwell time to extract maximum value from compromised systems.
Perhaps most concerning was the growth in ransomware attacks targeting North Carolina organizations. Municipalities, school districts, healthcare providers, and private businesses across the state experienced devastating ransomware incidents that locked critical systems and demanded payments in cryptocurrency. The City of Durham itself fell victim to a ransomware attack, demonstrating that even well-resourced local governments were not immune to these threats. These record numbers served as a stark wake-up call for every organization operating in North Carolina.
Understanding the Trends Behind Record-Breaking Breach Numbers
Craig Petronella, founder of Petronella Technology Group, has been analyzing North Carolina's cybersecurity landscape for over two decades. According to Petronella, the record number of breaches in 2019 was not a sudden spike but the inevitable result of systemic underinvestment in cybersecurity across the state's business community. Businesses had been accumulating security debt for years, deploying new technologies and digital services without proportionally investing in the security infrastructure needed to protect them. The attackers simply caught up.
Petronella's analysis identifies several key factors driving the surge in breaches. First, the explosion of cloud adoption without corresponding cloud security measures left massive gaps in data protection. Companies moved email, file storage, and critical applications to cloud platforms but failed to configure security settings properly, leaving data accessible to anyone who knew where to look. Second, the growing sophistication of phishing campaigns defeated traditional email filtering, with attackers using highly personalized messages that referenced real business transactions, real colleague names, and real projects to trick employees into clicking malicious links or transferring funds.
Third, the aging infrastructure prevalent in many North Carolina small businesses created vast attack surfaces. Unpatched servers, end-of-life operating systems, and legacy applications with known vulnerabilities gave attackers easy entry points. PTG's assessments of Triangle-area businesses consistently found critical vulnerabilities that could have been exploited with freely available tools, requiring no advanced skills from attackers. Fourth, the lack of security monitoring meant that breaches went undetected for extended periods, with the average dwell time exceeding 200 days nationally. Without continuous monitoring, businesses had no way to detect that attackers were inside their networks, silently exfiltrating data over months.
Petronella emphasizes that these numbers should not cause panic but should drive action. Every factor contributing to the record breach numbers is addressable through proper planning, appropriate investment, and partnership with experienced security providers. PTG's track record of zero breaches across all managed clients demonstrates that effective protection is achievable regardless of organization size or budget. The key is taking a proactive, risk-based approach rather than waiting for the inevitable attack to arrive.
Critical Steps to Protect Your Business From the Next Wave of Breaches
Conduct a Comprehensive Risk Assessment
The 2019 breach statistics made one thing clear: you cannot protect what you do not understand. PTG recommends that every North Carolina business conduct a thorough cybersecurity risk assessment that identifies all digital assets, maps data flows, evaluates existing controls, and quantifies the business impact of potential breaches. Most Triangle-area businesses that PTG assesses for the first time discover significant blind spots, including forgotten systems still connected to the network, third-party access points that were never properly secured, and data repositories that lack even basic access controls. A comprehensive risk assessment provides the foundation for every subsequent security decision, ensuring that limited budgets are directed toward the risks that matter most to the business rather than toward whatever product happens to have the best marketing at the moment.
Deploy Continuous Security Monitoring
One of the most alarming findings from the 2019 breach reports was how long many breaches went undetected. Businesses that rely solely on periodic scans and annual penetration tests are leaving months-long windows during which attackers can operate undetected inside their networks. PTG's managed security monitoring provides 24/7 visibility into network traffic, endpoint behavior, cloud activity, and user actions, using SIEM technology and trained analysts to detect and respond to threats in real time. For small and mid-size businesses in Raleigh, Durham, and the Research Triangle that cannot afford to staff an internal security operations center, PTG's managed monitoring services deliver enterprise-grade detection capabilities at a fraction of the cost. The difference between detecting an attacker on day one versus day 200 is often the difference between a minor security incident and a catastrophic breach that makes the state's annual report.
Implement Multi-Factor Authentication Everywhere
Credential theft was a primary factor in the majority of breaches reported in North Carolina during 2019. Attackers obtained employee usernames and passwords through phishing, credential stuffing from previous data breaches, and brute-force attacks against weak passwords. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is the single most effective control against credential-based attacks because it requires a second form of verification beyond the password alone. PTG recommends implementing MFA on every system that supports it, including email, VPN connections, cloud applications, remote desktop sessions, and administrative access to network infrastructure. The cost of deploying MFA is minimal compared to the protection it provides. PTG has helped hundreds of businesses across the Triangle implement MFA solutions that are both secure and user-friendly, eliminating the most common objection that MFA slows down productivity.
Eliminate Legacy Systems and Patch Aggressively
A significant number of 2019 breaches in North Carolina exploited known vulnerabilities in outdated software and operating systems. Many businesses were still running Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, or even older platforms that no longer received security updates from Microsoft. These systems had well-documented vulnerabilities with freely available exploit code, making them trivial targets for even unsophisticated attackers. PTG's recommendation is clear: eliminate every end-of-life system from your network or isolate it completely if replacement is not immediately possible. For systems that are still supported, establish a disciplined patch management process that applies critical security updates within 48 hours of release. PTG manages patching for its clients to ensure this happens consistently, because a single missed patch on a single system can provide the entry point for an attack that compromises the entire network.
Train Employees as Your First Line of Defense
Phishing and social engineering attacks were responsible for a substantial portion of breaches reported to the NC Attorney General in 2019. Technology alone cannot prevent an employee from clicking a convincing phishing link or responding to a fraudulent request that appears to come from their CEO. PTG provides security awareness training programs specifically designed for the types of businesses found in the Research Triangle region, covering phishing recognition, safe browsing practices, social engineering tactics, proper data handling procedures, and reporting suspicious activity. Training is delivered through interactive sessions supplemented by regular simulated phishing tests that measure and reinforce awareness over time. PTG's approach treats every employee as a potential security sensor rather than a liability, building a culture where people actively participate in protecting the organization rather than passively hoping IT will handle everything.
Build a Tested Incident Response Plan
The 2019 breach statistics revealed that many North Carolina organizations had no formal incident response plan in place when breaches occurred. Without a clear, documented, and rehearsed plan, breaches that could have been contained quickly instead spiraled into major incidents as confused staff made decisions ad hoc under extreme pressure. PTG builds incident response plans that define roles and responsibilities, establish communication protocols, outline containment and eradication procedures, and ensure compliance with North Carolina's breach notification requirements under the Identity Theft Protection Act. Critically, PTG also conducts tabletop exercises where leadership teams walk through simulated breach scenarios to test their plans before a real incident occurs. These exercises consistently reveal gaps and assumptions that would have caused serious problems during an actual breach, and they prepare decision-makers to act quickly and effectively when the real thing happens.
zero breaches among clients following our security program in a Record-Breaking Year
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919-348-4912Breach Trends Across North Carolina Industries
The 2019 breach statistics affected virtually every industry sector in North Carolina. Healthcare organizations reported the highest volume of compromised records due to the value of patient health information on criminal marketplaces. Financial services firms faced increasingly sophisticated attacks targeting wire transfers and account credentials. Government agencies and municipalities, including organizations in the Research Triangle, suffered ransomware attacks that disrupted public services for days or weeks. Manufacturing and technology companies in the RTP corridor experienced intellectual property theft and supply chain compromise. Every business sector across Raleigh, Durham, and the Triangle needs to learn from these statistics and strengthen defenses accordingly.
The PTG Advantage in a Record-Breach Environment
When the state reports record-breaking breach numbers, the question every business owner should ask is whether their current security provider would have kept them off that list. Petronella Technology Group's answer is demonstrated through results, not claims. While North Carolina was recording historic breach numbers in 2019, every single PTG managed client maintained zero breaches. That track record extends across more than 22 years and 2,500 companies, representing the most consistent breach prevention record of any managed security provider in the Research Triangle.
PTG achieves these results through a proactive, layered approach to security that does not wait for attacks to arrive before responding. Continuous monitoring, regular risk assessments, aggressive patch management, employee training, and tested incident response plans work together to create a security posture that is resilient against the full spectrum of threats documented in North Carolina's breach reports. PTG's team holds CEH and other advanced certifications, and maintains deep relationships with law enforcement and intelligence communities that provide early warning of emerging threats targeting the Triangle region. When you partner with PTG, you gain the confidence that comes from working with a team that has successfully defended thousands of organizations through the worst years in North Carolina's cybersecurity history.
NC Breach Statistics & Protection Questions
Do Not Become the Next NC Breach Statistic
North Carolina's record breach numbers are a call to action for every business in the state. Petronella Technology Group has protected over 2,500 companies with zero recorded breaches across 22 years. Call 919-348-4912 today for your free security assessment and discover how PTG can help your Raleigh, Durham, or Triangle-area business stay off the state's breach report. The best time to strengthen your defenses was before the breach. The second best time is right now.