Financial gain surpasses espionage as a top motivator in cyber attacks

NEW YORK – According to Verizon’s annual report on cybercrimes, money surpassed spying as the top motivator for data breaches in 2019.

Financial gain trumps espionage as top motivator in cyber attacks: report https://t.co/EVkn9ysIJs pic.twitter.com/3771MGISu7

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Approximately nine out of 10 breaches were financially inspired, based on an analysis of about 32,000 incidents and around 4,000 confirmed break-ins in 81 countries, the report stated.

Verizon Business 2020 Data Breach Investigations Report confirmed that data breaches doubled from the previous year. As the COVID-19 outbreak has forced people to remain indoors, cyber attacks on businesses are on the verge of increasing.

As per the report, 86% of breaches were for money, not for purposes of spying. Credential theft, phishing, and compromising business emails were responsible for 67% of the cyber attacks.

As a greater number of businesses moved to internet-based solutions, so did hackers. According to the report, breaches on web and cloud applications rose to 43%, double the amount of the previous year.

Companies such as Facebook and Salesforce have extended remote working orders to at least the end of the year, with more businesses expected to follow step. Tami Erwin, CEO, Verizon Business Group said the “digital transformation” to the work-from-home model during the COVID-19 outbreak has led to a number of security alarms.

He stated: “A lot of people ended up sending workers to work from home without really thinking through what were some of the security elements in the future,” Furthermore, “I think employees working from home are probably more vulnerable to attacks.”

According to Erwin, businesses can shield themselves from cyber attacks by educating employees on phishing, scams, and other fraudulent activities to access sensitive information.