Ransomware Threat Increases Sharply
Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report 2022: Year-over-year increase in ransomware attacks greater than in the last five years combined.
While criminals are deploying increasingly sophisticated forms of malware, ransomware is proving particularly successful at exploiting and profiting from illegal access to private information. About four out of five security breaches can be attributed to organized crime – with external actors being about four times more likely to cause security breaches in an organization than internal actors.
For many companies, the past year was also marked by supply chain issues. This trend was also reflected in the cybersecurity landscape. Sixty-two percent of system intrusions occurred through a company’s partners. Compromising the right partner is a multiplier for cybercriminals and highlights the issues many companies face in securing their supply chain.
Humans are by far the weakest link in a company’s cybersecurity defences. Twenty-five percent of all security breaches in the 2022 report were the result of social engineering attacks. Adding human error and privilege abuse, the human component accounted for 82 percent of the security breaches analysed last year.
About the DBIR
In its 15th edition, the 2022 DBIR analyzed a total of 23,896 quality incidents, of which 5,212 were confirmed security breaches. Data was collected from 87 national and international participants, ranging from law enforcement agencies to forensics and law firms to CERTs and ISACs, as well as government agencies from multiple countries.
