Hacking Key to 52% of all Info-thefts during 2012, Reports Verizon

Verizon the security company in its Data Breach Investigation Report of 2013, prepared after studying 47,000 documented hacking cases and 621 reported information theft incidences experienced during 2012, shows that 52% of cyber-crimes analyzed accounted for hacking as its main element, with malicious software being behind 40% of the total information thefts, thus published urgentcomm.com dated April 23, 2013. The report, incidentally, is the sixth one of its kind from Verizon.

It states that for small enterprises, malware and hacking were behind 54% and 72% of the information thefts respectively that the businesses encountered, while for the bigger enterprises, these were just 36% and 40% separately.

Remarking about this finding, Senior Analyst Marc Spitler with the Research, Investigations, Solutions and Knowledge (RISK) Team of Verizon stated that large business houses were doing an enhanced task of safeguarding assets that were exposed to the Internet at their premises. They currently used fewer Internet-facing assets each of which was made to provide specific business need just as in the cases of ports or services exposed to the Net. Such a tightening exercise was well done, Spitler described. Urgentcomm.com published this.

Furthermore Verizon in its report states that 35% of the total info theft incidents studied related to physical assaults like ATM scan while 29% related to social engineering tricks such as phishing.

During 2012 as against 2011, the aggregate count of data thefts via phishing was fourfold that's possibly because this method is getting frequently applied within personalized espionage campaigns.

Encouragingly, within 75% of the thefts, the countries-of-origin of the attackers were figured out, thanks to Verizon. And while Eastern Europe and US-based attackers were leaders in launching thefts that involved financial information, during 2012, those from China plainly were the maximum (96%), amongst nations that reportedly sponsored espionages.

To add further value, the report in the end also delineates certain important tips for organizations towards safeguarding themselves from data thefts. These are: removing inessential data, making sure all necessary controls are in place; accumulating, assessing and sharing cyber-threat events as also their intelligence data; and weighing up the threat scenario followed with devising strategies.

Related article: Hacking Attacks Are Increasing to Haunt Banks

» SPAMfighter News - 4/27/2013