A recent report from Verizon provided insights on the growing danger of phishing and ransomware attacks. The report used inputs from 83 contributing organizations worldwide and it provides unique insights on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the data breach landscape.
What’s in the report?
The Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report 2021 analyzed a total of 5,258 confirmed data breach incidents, which is a rise of 3,950 cases covered in last year’s report. The pandemic-led transition has played a critical role in it.
- Phishing attacks have increased by 11% and ransomware attacks rose by 6% compared to the year prior.
- Around 85% of breaches had a human element.
- From impersonating the WHO to taking advantage of vaccine distribution, COVID-19-themed phishing attacks were at a record high.
- Attacks on web applications accounted for 39% of all breaches.
Additional insights
The report analyzed 12 different industries and discovered that all of them face cybersecurity challenges. However, they differ from industry to industry based on infrastructure and the type of data they handle.
- In the insurance and financial sectors, personal data accounted for 83% of data impacted. Whereas in technical and scientific services, personal data accounted for 49% of all breached data.
- Social engineering attacks are one of the most significant threats to the public administration sector and stand as the reason behind 69% of the breaches.
Conclusion
The rapid transition to digital business and remote working has affected the threat landscape and led to increased cyberattacks. Therefore, organizations are recommended to follow basic cybersecurity hygiene and implement adequate security measures to avoid any unfortunate cyber incident.
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