The 2016 Verizon Data Breach Investigative Report (DBIR) Is Out

DBIR10 African countries featured including Kenya and South Africa

The 2016 DBIR by Verizon has been released. The report has revealed that there has been a 16% increase in ransomware attacks over the last 12 months, ItNewsAfrica reports.

According to the DBIR, 89% of attacks involved financial or espionage motivations. Financial motivations were a clear catalyst. Because of the organizations that are being targeted and how prevalent ransomware has become, ransomware is a hot topic. Businesses have a higher degree of risk attached to them even though every individual is susceptible to a ransomware attack. Business that handle confidential and sensitive information, naturally suffer a higher risk considering how devastating the effects of a ransomware attack could be.

Another growing concern that was noted by the DBIR is phishing. Verizon found that 30% of phishing messages were opened in 2015, a percentage that has increased from 23% in 2014. This may be because many people are not familiar with phishing. Phishing which can manifest itself as an email, website or text has been used for years to access personal information.

The report also indicated that there are “three-pronged attacks” which are being repeated over and over again by cybercriminals. It explained that the attack begins with a phishing email that comes with a link to either a corrupted website or attachment. On clicking through to a website or attachment, malware is downloaded onto a victim’s computer. This “establishes an initial foothold”, meaning that further malware can be downloaded to either encrypt data, access information and/or steal credentials. These credentials are used to carry out further cybercriminal activity, including breaching bank accounts.

Read more here. You can also download the report here.

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