Significant rise in targeted attacks, organised crime involvement
ConvergenceAsia staff
15/04/2009

More electronic records were breached in 2008 than the previous four years combined, fuelled by a targeting of the financial services industry and a strong involvement of organised crime, according to the “2009 Verizon Business Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR)".

This second annual study - based on data analysed from Verizon Business’ actual caseload comprising 285 million compromised records from 90 confirmed breaches - revealed that corporations fell victim to some of the largest cybercrimes ever during 2008. The financial sector accounted for 93 per cent of all such records compromised last year, and a staggering 90 per cent of these records involved groups identified by law enforcement as engaged in organised crime.

Verizon Business investigative experts found that nearly nine out of 10 breaches were considered avoidable if security basics had been followed. Most of the breaches investigated did not require difficult or expensive preventive controls. The 2009 report concluded that mistakes and oversight failures hindered security efforts more than a lack of resources at the time of the breach.

Similar to the first study’s findings, the latest study found that highly sophisticated attacks account for only 17 per cent of breaches. However, these relatively few cases accounted for 95 per cent of the total records breached – proving that motivated hackers know where and what to target.

“The compromise of sensitive information increased dramatically in 2008 and it’s past time to be vigilant about enterprise security,” said Dr. Peter Tippett, vice president of research and intelligence for Verizon Business Security Solutions. “This report should serve as another wake-up call that good security and a proactive approach are paramount to running a business in this day and age - particularly since the economic crisis is likely to trigger a further increase in criminal activity.”

This year’s key findings both support last year’s conclusions and provide new insights. These include:

- Most data breaches investigated were caused by external sources. Seventy-four per cent of breaches resulted from external sources, while 32 per cent were linked to business partners. Only 20 per cent were caused by insiders, a finding that may be contrary to certain widely held beliefs.

- Most breaches resulted from a combination of events rather than a single action. Sixty-four per cent of breaches were attributed to hackers who used a combination of methods. In most successful breaches, the attacker exploited some mistake committed by the victim, hacked into the network, and installed malware on a system to collect data.

- In 69 per cent of cases, the breach was discovered by third parties. The ability to detect a data breach when it occurs remains a huge stumbling block for most organisations. Whether the deficiency lies in technology or process, the result is the same. During the last five years, relatively few victims have discovered their own breaches.

- Nearly all records compromised in 2008 were from online assets. Despite widespread concern over desktops, mobile devices, portable media and the like, 99 per cent of all breached records were compromised from servers and applications.

- Roughly 20 per cent of 2008 cases involved more than one breach. Multiple distinct entities or locations were individually compromised as part of a single case, and remarkably, half of the breaches consisted of interrelated incidents often caused by the same individuals.

- Being PCI-compliant is critically important. A staggering 81 per cent of affected organisations subject to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) had been found non-compliant prior to being breached.

As the cybercrime market continues to evolve, so do the targets, techniques and types of attackers. The big money is now in stealing personal identification number (PIN) information together with associated credit and debit accounts. In 2008, Verizon Business witnessed an explosion of attacks targeting PIN data.

As was the case from 2004 to 2007, data breaches investigated in 2008 affected a wide array of organisations. While the retail industry continues to be the most frequently targeted, accounting for a third of all cases, the biggest rise was in financial services, which more than doubled its share to 30 per cent. But more importantly, the financial sector accounted for more than nine out of 10 of the more than 285 million records compromised.

Said Tippett, “The financial services firms were singled out and fell victim to some very determined, very sophisticated and, unfortunately, very successful attacks in 2008.”
Food and beverage establishments, the second most frequently hit industry in the first report, dropped to third place in 2008 with its share falling from 20 per cent to 14 per cent.

“Our task is not getting any easier; the sum total of information in the world grows continually and permeates everything we do and everywhere we go. While the majority of attacks remain rather mundane, the criminals are adapting to our current protection strategies and inventing new ways to attain the data they value,” he said.

Verizon Business, a unit of Verizon Communications, is a global provider of communications and IT solutions. A complete copy of the “2009 Data Breach Investigations Report” is available at www.verizonbusiness.com/resources/security/reports/2009_databreach_rp.pdf.

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