Security experts commonly say that there are only two types of companies these days. There’s companies that have been hacked, and those that don’t yet know that they’ve been hacked. Here are some important hacking trends given by a statistical study.
Verizon’s 2020 Data Breach Investigations Report counted 3,950 CONFIRMED data breaches last year in addition to more than 32,000 “security incidents.”
Victims spanned a wide range of 16 industries with these 4 having the largest number of cases:
- Professional Services – 7,500 incidents, 325 breaches
- Public Administration – 6,850 incidents, 350 breaches
- Information – 5,500 incidents, 360 breaches
- Financial/Insurance – 1,500 incidents, 450 breaches
*Totals slightly off due to rounding
Any business that operates online is at potential risk of suffering a data breach. Doesn’t matter how small your business is either.
According to Verizon’s report more than 3 out of 4 breaches are done by profit-minded criminals for financial gain.
Other alarming stats:
- Only 30% of data breaches were the work of insiders.
- 86% of data breaches occur due to financial profit of hackers
- Also, 58% of victims had personal information compromised
- In 17% Verizon said the attackers installed malicious software on the victim’s systems, whereas the more common tools are spear phishing, ransomware, or business email compromise.
- In 22 percent of breaches, the attackers leveraged social tactics, such as spear phishing, in which a tailored e-mail to the victim purports to come from a friend or business contact. The e-mails contain malicious links or attachments that, when clicked, give the attacker a foothold in the victim’s computer network. See below image for an example of what NOT to click.
Photo from Wikimedia Commons
The good news? The Verizon report highlighted the lag between the breach and the time of breach realization. This year, companies and external third-party software experts were able to improve that time. 81% of the time, it takes only days to contain a breach. Compare this to years past, where it is months, maybe even a year. In previous yearly reports, Verizon sates things like “The compromise-to-discovery timeline continues to show in months and even years, as opposed to hours and days.” No longer is this trend true. Don’t be another cog in one of the larger hacking trends currently ongoing. Click the link below or call 914-357-8444 today.
Photo by Christopher Gower on Unsplash