Verizon Data Breach Investigation Report

Verizon’s 2014 Data Breach Investigations Report was made available to journalists on April, 22. The bad news: cyber-criminals are winning by collaborating and constantly evolving their attack strategies. Cyber-espionage incidents, for example, have risen more than 300 percent since the 2013 report.

“After analyzing 10 years of data, we realize most organizations cannot keep up with cybercrime – and the bad guys are winning,” said Wade Baker, principal author of the report, in a press release. “But by applying big data analytics to security risk management, we can begin to bend the curve and combat cybercrime more effectively and strategically. 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,” Baker continued.

The good news: For the first time, the report included incidents that didn’t result in breaches, and provided actionable guidance for specific industries. Additionally, the quality of the data was enriched by greater participation than ever before, with 50 contributors versus 18 the year before.

According to the report, two out of three breaches are the result of compromised credentials. Perhaps one helpful tool in the future will be Quantum Key Distribution (QKD). This technology leverages quantum mechanics to guarantee encryption, and BT is already testing QKD over a live fiber network.

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