Data Breaches Increased 15% So Far in 2016

The trend for data breaches is not looking good. According to the latest data breach count from the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), they have gone up by 15% thus far in 2016. There have already been 657 reported data breaches this year compared to 781 for the entire year of 2015.

It’s nearly impossible to prevent any data that is transmitted electronically or stored on computers from being stolen if someone really wants it. After all, social engineering is a powerful tool that hackers use to get people to do things they may not otherwise. So, it’s important to always be aware that that type of manipulation can be happening at home and at work in an electronic environment (i.e. in email) or in a physical location.

If you are in the office, pay attention to anyone that is unfamiliar to you, is lacking visible credentials, or that is unescorted and doesn’t work there. That includes anyone who may be dressed as or is acting as if they are doing work there, such as pest control, printer repair, delivery personnel, etc. Don’t assume that the person at the front desk approved it. Ask questions even if you feel a little intrusive. You could save your company a lot of pain and suffering and potentially a lot of money. Find out if they are supposed to be there unescorted. Yes, it could be a new employee, but it could also be someone trying to steal information that might be left on desks, get access to the network, or plant malware. Jim Stickley of Stickley on Security actually was able to plant a file on a locked laptop running on Windows 10 in less than one minute. It doesn’t take long for a skilled cybercriminal to do a lot of damage.

No matter where you get email, be cautious about opening links or attachments, regardless of who sent the message. If you are not expecting it, confirm that the sender actually did intend to send it to you before opening. Even though there may be a lot of technology at place at your workplace, there is no guarantee that will stop these. That is because they all rely on the weaknesses in human beings and the trust we have in each other. Just because your colleague’s or boss’ name appears in the “from” line, does not mean it was actually he or she who sent it.

There are more stats from the ITRC report and they are not uplifting:

• The medical and healthcare sector experienced the highest number of compromises to date (36.1% or 237 total). The number of records exposed in these total over 13.5 million.

• The government and military sector accounts for 42.8% of the incidents resulting in exposure of over 12 million records.

• The banking and financial sectors are doing the best, likely due to the regulations and additional training and education they implement in their organizations. There have been 21 breaches thus far and 5,300 records.

• Business breaches accounted for exposure of 2.5 million records representing 8.8% of the exposed records.

• And not to be left out, the education sector has had 65 reported breaches so far accounting for 9.9% of the total breaches and over 400,000 exposed records.