In 2018, cyber-criminals exposed 2.8 billion consumer data records, costing over $654 billion to U.S. organizations, according to ForgeRock.
Cyber attacks on American financial services companies cost the industry more than $6.2 billion in the first quarter of 2019 alone – an increase of $8 million compared to the same period last year.
Despite a significant rise in investments in information security, with $114 billion invested in 2018, cyber-criminals are continuing to attack businesses across a broad range of industries in attempts to access consumers’ personal data.
The research revealed personally identifiable information (PII) was the most targeted data for breaches last year, comprising 97 percent of all data breaches. By targeting PII, cyber-criminals are confirming their insatiable appetite for consumer data,
The research also discovered the most frequent attack method was from unauthorized access, encompassing 34 percent of all attacks. The healthcare, financial services and government sectors were the most largely impacted by cyber attacks.
Eve Maler, VP of Innovation and Emerging Technology of ForgeRock said:
It’s clear from our research findings that consumer data is valuable and highly sought after by cyber-criminals as well as very difficult for organizations to protect, … Organizations can protect consumer data by implementing a strong customer identity management program. Every industry has incentives to avoid brand damage and costly breaches, and so organizations must use modern identity standards and practices to secure their infrastructure, from servers all the way out to client apps and smart devices at the edge.
2018: A Year of Costly Data Breaches for the U.S.
Key findings:
- Almost half (48%) of all consumer data breaches happened in the healthcare sector, four times as many in any other sector.
Financial services and government were the second and third most victimized industries, collectively comprising 20% of all breaches.
Breaches in financial services are down 20% in Q1 2019, compared to Q1 2018, but over 26.9 million consumer records were compromised in the Q1 2019 breaches alone, which is a 78,900% increase.
Date of birth and/or Social Security Numbers were the most frequently compromised type of PII in 2018, with 54% of breaches exposing this data.
Name and physical address (49%) and personal health information (46%) were the second and third most commonly compromised type of PII in 2018.
Sources: Security Magazine
