Secure Your Data, Not Just the Perimeter

Secure Your Data, Not Just the Perimeter

A recent report recommends a “new mindset,” in which companies focus more on the protection of the data itself than on securing the perimeter.

There were 1,792 breaches in 2016, down 4% from 1,866 the prior year, but the number of data records lost or stolen increased to 1.4 billion, up from 740 million in 2015.

Malicious outsiders: 68%,
Accidental loss: 19%,
Malicious insider: 9%,
Hactivist: 3%,
State-sponsored incidents: 1%

Identity theft: 59%,
Financial Access: 18%,
Account Access: 11%,
Nuisance: 8%,
Existential data: 4%

Healthcare: 28%, up 11%,
Government: 15%, down 9%,
Retail: 12%, down 10%,
Financial services: 12%, down 23%,
Technology Sector: 11%, up 55%

Technology sector: 391.6 million records, 28%,
Government: 391.7 million records, 28%,
Healthcare: 35.2 million records, 3%,
Retail: 32.5 million records, 2%,
Financial: 13.3 million records, 1%,
Hospitality: 9.5 records, less than 1%,
Education 4.3 million records, less than 1%,
Other: 500 million records, 36%

North America accounted for 80% of all breaches. The total number in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Central America was 1,433, up 11% from last year. The U.S. had 1,348 of the total.

Europe followed the U.S., with 161 incidents (9% of the total). Asia-Pacific had 145 incidents (8%), and the Middle East and Africa had 38 incidents (2%). South America had less than 1% of the breaches.

In 52% of the breaches, the number of compromised records was unknown because the information was not publicly available in the breach disclosure.

Encryption was used in only 4% of the data breaches.