For both 2014 and 2013, a single retailer breach dominated the tallies. The Home Depot Inc. confirmed in September that 56 million payment cards had been compromised after malware was placed on its point-of-sale systems. Minneapolis-based Target Corp. said 40 million cards were exposed in the breach that it confirmed in December 2013. Karen Barney, program director at the ITRC, says the total number of 2014's data breaches tracked by her organization as of Dec. 30 was 764, up 24% from 614 in 2013. Some 83.2 million consumer records, including cards, were compromised last year, an increase of 34% from 62 million in 2013. One reason breach disclosures are increasing is that more compromises at hospitals and doctors' offices are becoming known thanks to more-stringent reporting requirements from the federal Department of Health and Human Services, according to Barney. More than 40% of 2014's breaches involved medical providers, she says. Barney declines to speculate about the causes of 2014's big increase in card-related breaches. "There are just way too many variables," she says. "They can be anything."