Verizon collaborates with US Secret Service in Data Breach Invesigations
Verizon has recently released its 2010 Data Breach Investigations Report, which is based on a first-of-its kind collaboration with the U.S. Secret Service. The report finds that breaches of electronic records last year involved more insider threats, greater use of social engineering and the continued strong involvement of organised criminal groups.
The study also noted that the overall number of breaches investigated last year declined from the total for the previous year – “a promising” indication, the study said.
The report cited stolen credentials as the most common way of gaining unauthorised access into organisations in 2009, pointing once again to the importance of strong security practices both for individuals and organisations. Organised criminal groups were responsible for 85 percent of all stolen data last year, the report said.
Verizon Business investigative experts found, as they did in the company’s prior data breach reports, that most breaches were considered avoidable if security basics had been followed. Only 4 percent of breaches assessed required difficult and expensive protective measures.
The 2010 report concluded that being prepared remains the best defence against security breaches. For the most part, organisations still remain sluggish in detecting and responding to incidents. Most breaches (60 percent) continue to be discovered by external parties and then only after a considerable amount of time. And while most victimised organisations have evidence of a breach in their security logs, they often overlook them due to a lack of people, tools or processes.
The collaboration with the Secret Service, announced in May, enabled this year’s Data Breach Investigations Report to provide an expanded view of data breaches over the last six years. With the addition of Verizon’s 2009 caseload and data contributed by the Secret Service -- which investigates financial crimes -- the report covers 900-plus breaches involving more than 900 million compromised records.
A complete copy of the “2010 Data Breach Investigations Report” is available at http://www.verizonbusiness.com/go/2010databreachreport/ or go to the RESEARCH PAPERS tab under the Security Papers tab of this website.