Business response: Tactics for addressing ‘skyrocketing’ data breaches

Maintaining cybersecurity is important, whatever the function and wherever you work. Image by Ti Sandle.

In today’s world, data breaches are skyrocketing, with a staggering data breach frequency of 1 every 39 seconds according to research from the University of Maryland. Of these, 43 percent of these breaches target small to medium businesses, and the industries we least suspect are some of the worst offenders.

Many professionals do not realise that just by working in certain industries, their personal data—emails, passwords, financial details—can be compromised overnight. 

Kurt Nielson, CEO of Partisia, a privacy platform, shares his professional insights on how working in five industries could put employees’ and clients’ sensitive information at significant risk.
 

Data Breach Every 39 Seconds: 5 Industries Most at Risk

As has been seen, some industries are more vulnerable to cyber threats hence facing a high risk of experiencing data breaches or other types of cyberattacks in the future. Five industries that face a high risk of becoming victims of digital crimes are as follows; Conducting digital criminal activities, such as ransomware and insider threat attacks on these five industries exposes the sensitive information of these companies to great danger.
 

Manufacturing

The IBM Security’s 2024 Threat Intelligence Index revealed that manufacturing is among the most targeted industries by cyber attackers & the predominant attack methods included malware and ransomware. A famous example which took place was in February, 2023 when Applied Materials – an American multinational corporation with market capitalization of over multi-billion dollars suffered ransomware attack on one of its suppliers. It was predicted that this infraction could cost the company up to $250 million.
 

Finance and Insurance

The financial and insurance organizations are the most frequently attacked because of the nature of the data they process. Another common attack used by hackers is the web application attacks since millions of clients apply such apps. Internal threats are also increasing and according to the Verizon’s 2023 Data Breach Investigation report 34% breaches in this sector involved insiders.

Between 2018 to 2023 the threats from external sources have reduced marginally while threats from internal sources have increased. As for the cost of a breach in this industry they are among the highest with finance and insurance placing second in terms of cost of a breach.
 

Healthcare

The research concerns finding out that cybercriminals are targeting the healthcare industry more and more. At the same time as enforcing the connecting of more and more medical devices as well as employing the utilization of Electronic Health Records, healthcare data is a top commodity for the black market. 

When we tried to gather information about the growth rate of the healthcare cybersecurity market across the world, we came to know through marketsandmarkets that the market will reach up to $35. The US jeopardizes patient privacy where it is estimated that one million patients’ records are exposed every single day and will be 3 billion by 2028.
 

Government Agencies

But one sector that is most vulnerable to hackers is the governmental institutions, so rich in classified data. Seventy-nine ransomware assaults on U. S. government entities occurred in 2020, costing $18. Eight billion US dollars in lost revenues due to recovery costs and replacements. Even more shocking, only 38% of state and local government workers received training on how to mitigate ransomware risks; meaning this sector is very exposed to cyber criminals.
 

Energy and Utility Companies

Energy and utility companies provide important public services that are essential to the operation of a country’s infrastructure making them an obvious target to hackers. The recent attack that targeted the Colonial Pipeline in 2021, which halted fuel deliveries to the entire U.S. East Coast is a pretty good example of weaknesses present in this sector. 

Though FireEye has stated that the overall threats of cyber-attacks have scaled down over the recent past, energy firms are yet to be relieved of cyber threats since they are deemed to be of strategic importance to most nations.
 

A New Approach to Data Protection in High-Risk Industries

As data breaches become increasingly common, experts warn that employees in certain industries are particularly vulnerable to having their personal information compromised overnight. However, emerging technologies could offer a solution by shifting the way data is managed and protected.