Reports examine causes, victims of data breaches
On Wednesday, Verizon Business released a four-year study concluding that 9 out of 10 corporate data breaches could have been prevented, had appropriate security measures been taken. The Verizon report includes the results of more than 500 forensic investigations, including three of the largest data breaches ever reported.
Meanwhile, the Identity Theft Resource Center released its 2007 report on identity theft, offering comparisons to data it's collected over the last five years.
Verizon found that 73 percent of the data breaches were the result of outside sources, with only 18 percent from insider threats. Of the outside sources, 39 percent were attributed to business partners. Third parties, not victimized organizations, discovered 75 percent of the breaches.
Attack methods vary around the world, Verizon found. Attacks from Asia, China and Vietnam in particular, often involve application exploits. Attacks from the Middle East involve site defacements. And attacks from Eastern Europe and Russia involve point-of-sale compromises.
The ITRC report looks at the other side: the impact of identity fraud on its victims. In 2007, 57 percent of stolen information was used to open a new line of credit, while 13 percent was used to order cable and or other utility services.
Eighty-two percent of the victims learned of the theft through creditors or collection agencies, up from 76 percent a year ago. Only 10 percent found out through proactive measures, with 8 percent identifying something on their credit reports.
More disturbing, 62 percent of the respondents to the ITRC survey reported that thieves had committed crimes, such that warrants were issued in the victim's name.
As CNET's resident security expert, Robert Vamosi has been interviewed on the BBC, CNN, MSNBC, and other outlets to share his knowledge about the latest online threats and to offer advice on personal and corporate security. Listen to his podcast at securitybites.cnet.com or e-mail Robert with your questions and comments. 




There is also the bigger problem in our society of using our Social Security numbers as 'catch-all personal identification numbers'.
how to protect yourself? Man - I want *that* dudes job!!!
It's quite bothering though - what's with the 10% who, even with
hindsight, couldn't have fixed the problem?
And what about the "Application Exploit" attacks? He knows how to\
can figure out what an "appropriate security measure" is to
protect me against a buffer overflow mistake that nobody knows about
yet?? Why doesn't he do something useful with his talent, like
buy lottery tickets. If I could see the future, I wouldn't waste my time
doing security reports!!!
Cool - not only does he get 4 years pay to fartarse around doing what
he likes, he even eventually spews forth drivel, and still nobody
seems to notice...
- by johnfranks1234 June 24, 2008 6:30 AM PDT
- An excellent and timely article: It's amazing that breaches and thefts keep happening. There is something that is helping a lot of people, judging by the business blogs I?ve been reading. It?s a defined eCulture called "The Business-Technology Weave" - it helps to influence employee behaviour as regards security, use and integrity of data - as well as protection of hard assets (such as laptops). The book ?I.T. Wars? is the leading voice, and concentrates on the solution ? a proactive treatment and training of people, and reinforcements to their corresponding security awareness. This is particularly relevant: www.businessforum.com/DScott_02.html . Some good stuff here too: www.david-scott.net . We use his book at work - stupid mistakes like deleted and misplaced data have dropped tremendously. Our CEO even requires our vendors to read it.
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