Verizon 2015 Data Breach Report: Phishing Still Dominates

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In its 2015 Data Breach Investigations report, Verizon found that phishing remains one of the most effective means of instigating a data breach today. Furthermore, the exact phishing attacks are nearly carbon copies of the attacks perpetrated as far back as 2009.

Verizon Principal Client Partner Bhavesh Chauhan presented the report's findings at the Massachusetts State House this week. He emphasized the continued effectiveness of phishing attacks.

’We confirmed that by the time the threat actor sent out three phishing emails, they’d hacked into 50 percent of the audience,’ Chauhan said.

Chauhan said that despite the training people go through to prevent cybersecurity victimization, phishing preys on predictable ’human behavior.’ According to the report, phishing is on the rise in the ranks of the top 20 security threat actions.

’You can see the top 20 threat actions are staying the same. They’re still using the same techniques, the same actions. And you can see how it’s going up and down in terms of how they’re being successful in a specific group. So the lesson for us is, let’s look at the policies we have in place and say, ’How effective, how comprehensive they are on a continuous basis?’ Chauhan said.

PUBLISHED OCT. 7, 2015