Gemalto Releases Findings of First Half 2015 Breach Level Index
(Thomson Reuters ONE) -
Identity Theft Takes Top Spot Accounting for 53% of Data Breaches
State-Sponsored Attacks See Huge Gains, Accounting for 41% of Stolen Data
Records
Amsterdam - September 9, 2015 - Gemalto (Euronext NL0000400653 GTO), the world
leader in digital security, today released the findings of the Breach Level
Index for the first six months of 2015, revealing that 888 data breaches
occurred, compromising 246 million records worldwide.
Compared to the first half of 2014, data breaches increased by 10% while the
number of compromised data records declined by 41% during the first six months
of this year. This decline in compromised records can most likely be attributed
to that fact that fewer large scale mega breaches have occurred in the retail
industry compared to the same period last year.
Despite the decrease in the number of compromised records, large data breaches
continued to expose massive amounts of personal information and identities. The
largest breach in the first half of 2015 - which scored a 10 in terms of
severity on the Breach Level Index - was an identity theft attack on Anthem
Insurance that exposed 78.8 million records, representing almost a third (32%)
of the total data records stolen in the first six months of 2015. Other notable
breaches during this analysis period included a 21-million-record breach at the
U.S. Office of Personnel Management (BLI: 9.7); a 50-million-record breach at
Turkey's General Directorate of Population and Citizenship Affairs (BLI: 9.3);
and a 20-million-record breach at Russia's Topface (BLI: 9.2). In fact, the top
10 breaches accounted for 81.4% of all compromised records.
"What we're continuing to see is a large ROI for hackers with sophisticated
attacks that expose massive amounts of data records. Cyber criminals are still
getting away with big and very valuable data sets. For instance, the average
healthcare data breach in the first half of 2015 netted more than 450,000 data
records, which is an increase of 200 percent compared to the same time last
year," said Jason Hart, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Data
Protection at Gemalto.
Data Breaches by Source
The number of state-sponsored attacks accounted for just 2% of data breach
incidents, but the number of records compromised as a result of those attacks
totalled 41% of all records exposed, due to the breaches at Anthem Insurance and
the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. While none of the top 10 breaches from
first half of 2014 were caused by state-sponsored attacks, three of the top ten
this year were state sponsored-including the top two.
At the same time, malicious outsiders were the leading source of data breaches
in the first half of 2015, accounting for 546 or 62% of breaches, compared to
465 or 58% in the first half of last year. Forty-six percent or 116 million of
the total compromised records were attributable to malicious outsiders, down
from 71.8% or 298 million in 2014.
Data Breaches by Type
Identity theft remained the primary type of breach, accounting for 75% of all
records compromised and slightly more than half (53%) of data breaches in the
first half of 2015. Five of the top ten breaches, including the top three -
which were all classified as Catastrophic on the BLI - were identity theft
breaches, down from seven of the top 10 from the same period last year.
Data Breaches by Industry
Across industries, the government and healthcare sectors accounted for about
two-thirds of compromised data records (31% and 34% respectively), though
healthcare only accounted for 21% of breaches this year, down from 29% compared
to the same period last year. The retail sector saw a significant drop in the
number of stolen data records, accounting for 4% compared to 38% for the same
period last year. Across regions, the U.S. represented the largest share with
three-quarters (76%) of data breaches and nearly half of all compromised records
(49%). Turkey accounted for 26% of compromised records, with its massive GDPCA
breach in which 50 million records were breached by a malicious outsider.
The level of encryption used to protect exposed data -- which can dramatically
reduce the impact of data breaches - increased slightly to 4% of all breaches
compared with 1% in H1 2014.
"While the number of data breaches fluctuates, it's still clear that breaches
are not a matter of 'if' but 'when.' The Breach Level Index data shows that most
companies are not able to protect their data once their perimeter defences are
compromised. Although more companies are encrypting data, they are not doing it
at the levels needed to reduce the magnitude of these attacks," added Hart.
"What is needed is a data-centric view of digital threats starting with better
identity and access control techniques including multi-factor authentication and
strong encryption to render sensitive information useless to thieves."
According to Forrester, as cybercriminals have become more skillful and
sophisticated, they have eroded the effectiveness of traditional perimeter-based
security controls. The constantly mutating threat landscape requires new
defensive measures, one of which is the pervasive use of data encryption
technologies. In the future, organizations will encrypt data - both in motion
and at rest - by default. This data-centric approach to security is a much more
effective way to keep up with determined cybercriminals. By encrypting, and
thereby devaluing, sensitive data, organizations can make cybercriminals bypass
their networks and look for less robustly protected targets. Encryption will
become a strategic cornerstone for security and risk executives responsible for
their organization's data security and privacy efforts.(1)
For a full summary of data breach incidents for the first half of 2015 by
industry, source, type and geographic region, download the 1H 2015 Breach Level
Index Report.
The Breach Level Index provides a centralized, global database of data breaches
and calculates their severity based on multiple dimensions, including the type
of data and the number of records stolen, the source of the breach, and whether
or not the data was encrypted. By assigning a severity score to each breach, the
BLI provides a comparative list of breaches, distinguishing nuisances from truly
impactful mega breaches. Information populating the BLI database is based on
publicly-available breach disclosure information. For more information, visit
www.breachlevelindex.com.
Related Resources:
* Infographic: 2015 1H Breach Level Index
* Secure the Breach Manifesto
* Secure the Breach Web Site
(1) Forrester Research, Inc., Kill Your Data to Protect It From Cybercriminals,
July 12, 2012
About Gemalto
Gemalto (Euronext NL0000400653 GTO) is the world leader in digital security,
with 2014 annual revenues of ?2.5 billion and blue-chip customers in over 180
countries.
Gemalto helps people trust one another in an increasingly connected digital
world. Billions of people want better lifestyles, smarter living environments,
and the freedom to communicate, shop, travel, bank, entertain and work -
anytime, everywhere - in ways that are enjoyable and safe. In this fast moving
mobile and digital environment, we enable companies and administrations to offer
a wide range of trusted and convenient services by securing financial
transactions, mobile services, public and private clouds, eHealthcare systems,
access to eGovernment services, the Internet and internet-of-things and
transport ticketing systems.
Gemalto's unique technology portfolio - from advanced cryptographic software
embedded in a variety of familiar objects, to highly robust and scalable back-
office platforms for authentication, encryption and digital credential
management - is delivered by our world-class service teams. Our 14,000 employees
operate out of 99 offices, 34 personalization and data centers, and 24 research
and software development centers located in 46 countries.
For more information visit www.gemalto.com, www.justaskgemalto.com,
blog.gemalto.com, or follow (at)gemalto on Twitter.
Gemalto media contacts:
Philippe Benitez Peggy Edoire Vivian Liang
North America Europe & CIS (Greater China)
+1 512 257 3869 +33 4 42 36 45 40 +86 1059373046
philippe.benitez(at)gemalto.com peggy.edoire(at)gemalto.com vivian.liang(at)gemalto.com
Ernesto Haikewitsch Kristel Teyras Pierre Lelievre
Latin America Middle East & Africa Asia Pacific
+55 11 5105 9220 +33 1 55 01 57 89 +65 6317 3802
ernesto.haikewitsch(at)gemalto.com kristel.teyras(at)gemalto.com pierre.lelievre(at)gemalto.com
Press release (PDF):
http://hugin.info/159293/R/1950610/709248.pdf
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(i) the releases contained herein are protected by copyright and
other applicable laws; and
(ii) they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and
originality of the information contained therein.
Source: Gemalto via GlobeNewswire
[HUG#1950610]
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Datum: 09.09.2015 - 07:02 Uhr
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News-ID 418682
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