Healthcare accounted for just 3 percent of the data breaches reviewed by Verizon and the U.S. Secret Service according to a new report on cybercrime. The biggest targets, not surprisingly, were financial services organizations, accounting for 33 percent of the breaches. Hospitality and retail organizations were the second most frequented targets, accounting for 23 and 15 percent of the breaches, respectively. Their vulnerability reflects their use of payment cards and point of service systems, according to the analysis.
External agents were the perpetrators in 70 percent of cases, but insiders were implicated in 48 percent of cases and business partners in 7 percent. (The numbers exceed 100 percent because many cases involved multiple parties.) Misuse of privilege was the most common problem, but hacking and malware remain big threats. Most attacks were not considered highly difficult, and victims generally had evidence of the breaches in their log files.
The report recommended organizations take several steps to minimize security risks, including eliminating unnecessary data, auditing user accounts, monitoring privileged activity, and mining event logs for evidence of breaches.
To learn more:
- read the report