Cyber Security 2021: Q3-Q4 Cyber Security Breach News

Since the beginning of the pandemic, cyber security issues have become more visible and complicated. Cyber security was just a theory for many years, and businesses didn’t care much about its state. Now that almost all the world went online, this critical period in our lives revealed real cyber security problems. More individuals and businesses are becoming aware of cyber security and improving it. But we aren’t still fully prepared to fight back firmly.

Meanwhile, malicious actors don’t wait for the whole world to transform. A cyberattack happens every half a minute. Hackers attack utilizing more and more sophisticated techniques, some of which are challenging even for the most prominent cyber security experts. Let’s have a look at the latest cyber security breach news and previous cyber breach statistics. 

What Is a Data Breach?

A data breach is unauthorized access, acquisition, or disclosure of personal, confidential, and sensitive information without permission. Many data breaches are caused by cyber attacks such as ransomware, phishing, malware, DoS, etc. Data breaches are often estimated in stolen, exposed, affected, or compromised records - for example, Yahoo’s massive data breach of 3 billion accounts.

Cyber Breach Statistics

The primary causes for data breaches in 2020 were deliberate theft (#1) and human error (#2). The data breaches were estimated to cost millions of dollars. For example, it reached about $5 million in Canada in 2020, which exceeded 2019’s cost by almost 7%. Meanwhile, only 36% of businesses that experienced data breaches (a quarter of all organizations) reported cybercrime. Cyber experts also point out that, in most cases, the amount of time spent on breach detection and containment is more than half a year - about half a year to identify a data breach and about two to three months to contain. 

This year doesn't differ from the previous years’ cyber breach statistics results in the aspect of hackers’ gain - it remains financial. Malicious actors’ activity is more and more motivated by money during pandemic times. Breaches exposed more than 18 billion records in 2021’s Q1-Q2. 2021 also features the increase of the human element as a cause of data breaches. Internal sources are becoming the main concern - accidental, indeliberate, and intentional actions. More than half of data breaches occurred because user credentials were compromised or stolen.

Latest Cyber Security Breach News

Over Q3-Q4, there are many examples of cyber security breach news in the healthcare field: 6,500 patients’ records breached at the US physical therapy center; over 144,000 patients of optometry provider Simon Eye; Alaska Department of Health warning the residents of the potential risks. Healthcare remains an enticing sphere for hackers, but this can also be the result of the US data policy update for healthcare applications and Internet device (IoT) traders. The apps are obliged to report data breaches as they have access to the most sensitive data.

Retailers, mass manufacturers, and especially e-Commerce operators keep being targeted. Neiman Marcus (NMG, a US giant luxury department stores chain), Next Level Apparel (clothing retailer, wholesale producer, and e-Commerce trader) were notifying their customers about recent data breaches. Truck manufacturer Navistar also belongs to this category.

Among other victims, there are apps with various services, other state or government entities, including universities, online gaming services, and other small to large businesses. But what makes the latest cyber security breach news even sadder is that the very cyber security field and hi-tech are under constant attack, and hackers do manage to get through. The last victim is Travis CI, a Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) platform for testing, deploying, and creating developers’ codes.

Each of the data breaches reported in 2021 Q3-Q4 represents a lengthy and sophisticated process.

Cyber Security Breach News: Interesting and Useful Facts

1. Large data breaches are likely to happen to the same victim not earlier than in two years after the previous incident.
2. The size of the business doesn’t change a data breach likelihood.
3. Estimated cybercrime costs will be trillions of dollars annually by 2025.
4. Online gaming is a developing hacker surface.
5. Up-to-date cloud-based cyber security systems contain data breaches much faster.

The latest cyber security breach news (2021 Q3-Q4) proves once again that no business is immune to cyber attacks. But you can become maximally prepared with expert help. Do you know how strong your enterprise’s cyber security is? MBS Techservices can help you answer the question. Reach out to our team to get a consultation. Learn from the best to protect your business.