UPDATE Although publicly disclosed breaches “sharply decreased” in 2020 and the first half of 2021, the number of ransomware attacks increased, Risk Based Security said in its 2021 Mid Year Data Breach QuickView Report.
The T-Mobile data breach received a lot of attention, but the number of publicly reported data breaches, 1,767, in the first six months of 2021, was down 24 percent globally year over year, according to Risk Based Security, a cyber security analytics firm. Additionally, the number of records exposed in the first half dropped 32 percent, year over year, to 18.8 billion. Meanwhile, ransomware attacks increased by seven times in the second half of 2020, according to Fortinet, a network security company.
“Audacious ransomware attacks continue at an alarming pace, inflicting serious damage on the victim organizations and those that rely on their services; the slow pace of reporting brought on by lengthy incident investigations has not improved; and attackers continue to find new opportunities to take advantage of changing circumstances,” according to the report.
Verizon Business, which provides global data analytics of data breaches, said it examined more cyber attacks globally than ever before during the pandemic. The Verizon Business 2021 Data Breach Investigations Report, released in May, reported 5,258 breaches from 83 contributors across the globe, a third more breaches analyzed than last year.
Phishing and ransomware attacks increased by 11 percent and six percent respectively, with instances of misrepresentation increasing by 15 times compared to last year, according to the report. Additionally, 61 percent of breaches involved credential data, and attacks on web applications in the cloud represented 39 percent of all breaches.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on many of the security challenges organizations are currently facing,” said Verizon Business CEO Tami Erwin. “As the number of companies switching business-critical functions to the cloud increases, the potential threat to their operations may become more pronounced, as malicious actors look to exploit human vulnerabilities and leverage an increased dependency on digital infrastructures.”
Reader Interactions