Verizon Business 2009 Data Breach Study, Rise in Targeted Attacks

PRNewswire
Financial Industry Accounts for 93 Percent of 285 Million Compromised Records; Most Breaches Avoidable if Proper Precautions Taken.
BASKING RIDGE, N.J., April 15 /PRNewswire/ -- More electronic records were breached in 2008 than the previous four years combined, fueled by a targeting of the financial services industry and a strong involvement of organized crime, according to the "2009 Verizon Business Data Breach Investigations Report" (DBIR) released Wednesday (April 15).
This second annual study -- based on data analyzed from Verizon Business' actual caseload comprising 285 million compromised records from 90 confirmed breaches -- revealed that corporations fell victim to some of the largest cybercrimes ever during 2008. The financial sector accounted for 93 percent of all such records compromised last year, and a staggering 90 percent of these records involved groups identified by law enforcement as engaged in organized crime.
Similar to the first study's findings, the latest study found that highly sophisticated attacks account for only 17 percent of breaches. However, these relatively few cases accounted for 95 percent of the total records breached - proving that motivated hackers know where and what to target.

Comments