The ever increasing scale of cyber theft

Accordingly to an article in Computer Weekly cyber criminals compromised more than a billion data records in 2014 by means of more than 1,500 breaches, which represents an increase of 49% in data breaches and 78% increase in data records lost or stolen in 2013. That works out at 32 records lost or stolen every second! Most of the data breaches were in North America (76%), followed by Europe (12%), where the UK had the highest number (117 breaches). The UK is a target seemingly because of the large number of financial institutions based in London. Over half the breaches were made by malicious outsiders, with accidental loss amounting to a quarter, malicious insiders 15%, state-sponsored attackers 4% and ‘hacktivists’ just 1%. Wherever the threat originates, it’s clear that breaches are increasing in size and frequency, meaning that all holders of data must be constantly vigilant and ensure that information governance policies and procedures around access, authentification, encryption and storage are adhered to, so a handy plug for the Archive & Records Association’s ‘Don’t Risk It’ campaign.