Verizon 2014 DBIR to fight Cyber Threats

Verizon security researchers, using advanced analytical techniques, have found that 92 per cent of the 100,000 security incidents analyzed over the past ten years can be traced to nine basic attack patterns that vary from industry to industry. This finding, the highlight of Verizon’s “2014 Data Breach Investigations Report”, will enable a more focussed and effective approach to fighting cyber threats.

“Organizations need to realize no one is immune from a data breach. Compounding this issue is the fact that it is taking longer to identify compromises within an organization – often weeks or months, while penetrating an organization can take minutes or hours,” said Wade Baker, Principal Author of the Data Breach Investigations Report series.

The DBIR identifies the nine threat patterns as: miscellaneous errors such as sending an email to the wrong person; crimeware (various malware aimed at gaining control of systems); insider/privilege misuse; physical theft/loss; Web app attacks; denial of service attacks; cyber espionage; point-of-sale intrusions; and payment card skimmers.

This year’s report found that, on average, just three threat patterns cover 72 per cent of the security incidents in any industry.