Australia ranks 5th on the global list for number of data breaches.
Just a little over six months into 2018, Australia has already been the target of 24 data breaches. If you’re thinking that number doesn’t sound so bad, think again: those attacks exposed 20,035,981 records, or an average of 834,833 records compromised per breach. That’s enough to rank Australia 5th for global data breaches in the first half of the year.
Here’s a quick recap of all the highlights from Risk Based Security’s 2018 Global Data Breach report.
2018 Global Data Breach highlights
Although 2018 might not boast the mega attacks of years past—think 2017’s NotPetya and WannaCry—breaches in the first half of the year have still wreaked havoc. The last six months have seen 2,692 security breaches, falling well behind 2017’s mid-year figure (6,440) but above 2016’s 1,531 leaks.
Although the number of breaches is on the decline, the number of records exposed is in the same ballpark—meaning that, at least by this measure, the attacks are becoming more serious. When a database in India was hacked this year, for instance, a staggering 1.3 billion records were exposed.
Cybersecurity issues in the U.S., which ranked 1st on the 2018 Global Data Breach List, resulted in 1.03 billion exposed records. And globally, five breaches alone exposed more than 100 million records.
THE TOP 10 COUNTRIES FOR DATA BREACHES IN 2018 THUS FAR:
- United States (1074 breaches)
- United Kingdom (62 breaches)
- Canada (48 breaches)
- India (45 breaches)
- Australia (24 breaches)
- France (16 breaches)
- Germany (15 breaches)
- Brazil (11 breaches)
- Denmark (8 breaches)
- New Zealand (7 breaches)
In terms of total records compromised, India clocks in as #1, followed by the U.S., Germany, Vietnam and Australia. The most common data types exposed were email addresses (45.4% overall), passwords (41.4%), names (34.5%), addresses (20%) and, even more troubling, social security numbers (19.2%).
WHAT’S CAUSING ALL THESE DATA BREACHES?
Under Armour’s health-monitoring app MyFitnessPal fell victim to a data breach in which the records of approximately 150 million users were exposed. Marketing firm Exactis was recently in the news for a breach that exposed 340 million records on a public server. And the Aadhar database breach, which we referenced earlier, exposed as many records as there are people in India. (Hint: that’s a lot.)
So, why hasn’t the seriousness of data breaches subsided?
When data breaches in businesses make up 40% of total reported breaches and 52% of exposed records, an underlying issue comes into focus: corporate security is still lagging behind the skills of enterprising hackers and other cybercriminals. And as a result, businesses are paying the price.
Ransomware attacks on businesses were the most common type of malware breach in the 2018 mid-year report, and that trend is expected to continue. Illegal profits from ransomware attacks are projected to hit $11.5B as soon as next year. But ransomware is far from the only type of breach that is used to target businesses. According to the report, hacking reigns supreme in terms of the sheer number of incidents and is responsible for an astounding 54.6% of documented breaches. Fraud still holds the title for the most insidious type of breach, as it compromises the most records, weighing in at 47.5%.
In this landscape, it’s no surprise that global business spending on cybersecurity is projected to eclipse $93 billion by the end of 2018. But spending alone isn’t enough. To minimize your risk for a cyberattack, businesses need a strategy that’s comprehensive, robust and continually evolving to match the latest developments in digital security.
To discover how you can safeguard your business against costly cyberattacks, contact us today.
