Welcome to the 15th annual Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report! It is truly hard to believe that it has been 15 years since our inaugural installment of this document. Were we to indulge our imaginations with anthropomorphic comparisons, we might find this report having its braces removed, finally being able to get a driver’s permit, overusing sarcasm, perhaps becoming a bit goth and generally being unappreciative. But we won’t bother with all that. We will simply say THANK YOU! Thank you to our contributors for your continued willingness to share your data, insight and vast experience in a selfless effort to improve this industry. A huge thank you to our readers for sticking with us through this long and epic journey, for being the reason we work so hard to produce this report, and most of all, for keeping us from having to get real jobs.