NE NEWS SERVICE
HYDERABAD, JULY 29
A three-month analysis conducted by telecom company Verizon Business, the Telangana government, and Hyderabad Security Cluster, on the possible impact of COVID-19 on the data breach landscape, has shed light on an increasing number of threat actors, worrying cybersecurity specialists.
The Verizon Business study, released on Tuesday, reviewed 474 data breaches from March to June 2020 based on contributor data, publicly disclosed incidents, and Verizon’s own observations drawn from its collective years of experience. It focused on 36 confirmed breaches, which were directly related to the pandemic.
“ In view of the COVID19 pandemic, many large and small organisations have adopted new technologies such as software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions, increased cloud-based storage, and the use of third-party vendors in record time to continue to support their customers. While the SaaS solutions mentioned above, or the cloud itself, are not inherently less secure, however, the concern arises from the fact that due to the conditions the pandemic has created, most organizations are adopting them in a hurried fashion, and they are often forced to do so while relying on fewer resources in terms of both personnel and revenue thereby multiplying the risk.. ” said Prashant Gupta, Head of Solutions, Verizon Business.
“Businesses need to start taking far greater responsibility in protecting their technology infrastructure. From deploying more robust security protocols to ensuring timely data breach disclosure policies. Once you lose public confidence, gaining that credibility back can often be an uphill task,” said Dr Zaki Qureshy, Founding Father, Hyderabad Security Cluster.
The Verizon Business 2020 Data Breach Investigations Report stated that almost a quarter of all breaches were due to human error and this continued during the pandemic. This is due to firms operating with reduced staff.
Also over 80% of breaches in the hacking category are caused by stolen. During the pandemic, this is being exacerbated by employees working from home.
In March, a phishing simulation, conducted by a DBIR contributor, performed on approximately 16,000 people found that almost three times as many people not only clicked through a phishing link but also provided their credentials to the simulated login page.
