Cyberespionage and ransomware attacks are on the increase warns the Verizon 2017 Data Breach Investigations Report, the findings of which were emailed to MMW on Monday.
Per the summary provided, cyberespionage is now the most common type of attack seen in manufacturing, the public sector and now education.
Much of this is due to the high proliferation of propriety research, prototypes and confidential personal data, which are hot-ticket items for cybercriminals.
Nearly 2,000 breaches were analyzed in this year’s report and more than 300 were espionage-related many of which started life as phishing emails.
In addition, organized criminal groups escalated their use of ransomware to extort money from victims: this year’s report sees a 50 percent increase in ransomware attacks compared to last year. Despite this increase and the related media coverage surrounding the use of ransomware, many organizations still rely on out-of-date security solutions and aren’t investing in security precautions. In essence, they’re opting to pay a ransom demand rather than to invest in security services that could mitigate against a cyberattack.
“Insights provided in the DBIR are levelling the cybersecurity playing field,” said George Fischer, president of Verizon Enterprise Solutions. “Our data is giving governments and organizations the information they need to anticipate cyberattacks and more effectively mitigate cyber-risk. By analyzing data from our own security team and that of other leading security practitioners from around the world, we’re able to offer valuable intelligence that can be used to transform an organization’s risk profile.”
For more information, check out the full report here.
