A recently released 2016 data breach report has shown that the number of data breaches reported by businesses has remained fairly constant year on year. 4,149 data breaches were reported between January and December 2016, which is broadly on a par with the figures from 2015.
2015 saw the largest ever healthcare data breach ever reported – The 78.8 million record data breach at Anthem Inc. There were also two other healthcare data breaches in 2015 that resulted in the theft of more than 10 million records. The 11-million record breach at Premera Blue Cross and the 10-million record breach at Excellus BlueCross BlueShield.
2016 saw more data breaches reported by healthcare organizations than in 2015, although the severity of the attacks was nowhere near as bad. More than 27 million healthcare records were exposed in 2016, whereas the total for 2015 was in excess of 113 million.
2016 Data Breach Report Shows Severity of Cyberattacks Has Dramatically Increased
While the severity of healthcare data breaches fell year on year, the 2016 data breach report from Risk Based Security shows an overall increase in the severity of data breaches across all industries. 2016 was a record-breaking year.
In 2013 more than 1 billion records were exposed or stolen – the first time that the 1 billion record milestone had been passed. 2016 saw that previous milestone smashed. More than four times as many records were stolen in 2016 than in 2013. 2016 data breaches exposed an incredible 4.2 billion records.
The RBS 2016 data breach report details 94 data breaches that exposed more than 1 million records. 37 breaches resulted in the exposure of more than 10 million records. The United States was the biggest target, accounting for 47.5% of the data breaches reported over the course of the year.
Healthcare data breaches hit the headlines frequently in 2016 due to the potential impact they had on the victims. However, healthcare industry data breaches only made up 9.2% of the annual total. The business sector was the worst hit, accounting for 51% of breaches in 2016. Government organizations made up 11.7% of the total and education 4.7%.
According to the RBS 2016 data breach report, the top ten data breaches of 2016 exposed an incredible 3 billion records and the average severity score of those breaches was 9.96 out of 10. All but one of those security breaches was caused by hackers. One of the incidents was a web-related breach. Six of the data breaches reported in 2016 ranked in the top ten list of the largest data breaches ever reported.
Six 2016 Security Incidents Ranked in the Top 10 List of Largest Ever Data Breaches
The largest data breach of 2016 – and also the largest data breach ever reported – was the hacking of Yahoo. More than 1 billion user credentials were exposed as a result of that cyberattack. While malware is a major threat to businesses, malware attacks only accounted for 4.5% of data breaches in 2016. Hacking exposed the most records and was the main cause of 2016 data breaches, accounting for 53.3% of incidents and 91.9% of the total number of stolen records.
Many organizations also reported being attacked on multiple occasions. The 2016 data breach report shows that 123 organizations reported multiple data breaches in 2016 and 37% of those organizations reported experiencing three or more data breaches between January and December.
According to RBS, more than 23,700 data breaches have now been tracked. In total, more than 9.2 billion records have been exposed or stolen in those incidents. According to RBS Executive vice president Inga Goddijn, “Any organization that has sensitive data – which is every organization with employees or confidential business information – can be a target.”
Cyberattacks are coming from all angles. Employees are being targeted via email, the volume of malware-laden websites and phishing sites has soared, malvertising is increasing and hackers are exploiting unpatched software vulnerabilities.
It is difficult to predict how bad 2017 will be for cybersecurity breaches, but it is fair to assume that data breaches will continue to occur at a similar level. Organizations need to respond by increasing their cybersecurity defenses to prevent attacks from occurring, but also to prepare for the worst and ensure they are ready to deal with a breach when one occurs. A fast response can limit the damage caused.