Phishing, Ransomware Driving Wave of Data Breaches

Phishing, Ransomware Driving Wave of Data Breaches

by Nathan Eddy on July 12, 2021

“Data compromises have increased every month this year except May.

If that trend continues, or even if there is only an average of 141 new compromises per month for the next six months, the total will still exceed the previous high of 1,632 breaches set in 2017.

These were among the findings of the nonprofit organization Identity Theft Resource Center’s (ITRC) latest data breach analysis report, which revealed publicly reported U.S. data breaches are up 38% in the second quarter of 2021, for a total of 491 compromises, compared to Q1.”

“Simply put, cybercriminals don’t need to steal as much information as they have historically to commit phishing and ransomware attacks,” said the ITRC’s chief operating officer James E. Lee. “For the past several years, identity thieves have been relying less on stealing mass amounts of information needed to attack individuals in favor of being very targeted in what they steal and the companies they target.”

He noted even with the drop in the number of victims, the risk of identity crimes to those impacted by breaches and compromises is real and can have devastating consequences.”

LINK: https://securityboulevard.com/2021/07/phishing-ransomware-driving-wave-of-data-breaches/