By Data breaches continue to dominate headlines around the world. Recent findings analyzed by Atlas VPN reveal that as many as 45% of businesses had a data breach in the last 12 months.
The data is based on a survey conducted by Kaspersky and B2B International on September 30, 2020. Researchers interviewed 4,179 businesses globally, with 50 and up to 4,999 employees. Surveyed companies are from the following 5 industries: financial services, government, manufacturing, IT and telecommunications, retail and wholesale.
Atlas VPN delves into the data leak specifics, like which sector saw data breaches most often and what are the dangers of a data breach in each sector.
Rachel Welch, COO of Atlas VPN, shares her thoughts on how users can protect themselves from being affected by a data breach:
“Data breaches exposing millions of personal records are becoming the new normal. Sadly, not all businesses report breaches, thus leaving their customers in danger of identity theft or financial fraud.
I would advise every person to use 2-Factor Authentication (2-FA) on any services that offer this option. For other services and websites, change your passwords consistently, at least every quarter.”
Analysis reveals that out of the 4,179 businesses, 45% lost data to hackers in the past 12 months. IT and telecommunication companies saw breaches most often, with 53% of companies losing data.
Next up is the retail and wholesale industry, in which 52% of businesses experienced a data breach in the last year.
Shockingly, as many as 78% of surveyed businesses reported some kind of a cyber threat in their systems last year. On average, a cyber incident caused $312,117 in damages.
Besides data breaches, viruses and malware are the most common threats detected. Over 43% of companies experienced viruses & malware in their internal network in the last 12 months.
There is a wide variety of viruses and malware created by hackers. Nonetheless, the overwhelming majority of them are created to make money illegally.
