GEC NEWS WIREData breaches increased 49 % in 2014 with cybercriminals targeting identity theft as top breach category
Gemalto’s Breach Level Index has revealed that more than 1,500 data breaches led to one billion data records compromised worldwide during 2014. These numbers represent a 49% increase in data breaches and a 78% increase in data records that were either stolen or lost compared to 2013.
“We’re clearly seeing a shift in the tactics of cybercriminals, with long-term identity theft becoming more of a goal than the immediacy of stealing a credit card number,” said Sebastien Pavie, regional sales director, MEA, Gemalto “Identity theft could lead to the opening of new fraudulent credit accounts, creating false identities for criminal enterprises, or a host of other serious crimes. As data breaches become more personal, we’re starting to see that the universe of risk exposure for the average person is expanding.”
“Not only are data breach numbers rising, but the breaches are becoming more severe,” added Pavie. “Being breached is not a question of ‘if’ but ‘when.’ Companies need to adopt a data-centric view of digital threats starting with better identity and access control techniques such as multi-factor authentication and the use of encryption and key management to secure sensitive data. That way, if the data is stolen it is useless to the thieves.”
