Mary-Louise Hoffman
A Verizon security research report indicates that cyberespionage was the motive behind 22 percent of breach incidents over the past year.
Mike Fey, chief technology officer for Intel‘s security business, discusses the findings of Verizon’s “2014 Data Breach Investigations Report” in an article published Thursday on the Verizon website.
Fey writes the research cited manufacturing, professional services firms, transportation and mining industries as among the common targets of cyberespionage.
“I know personally from our own analysis of operations that these attacks are serious and financially alarming,” Fey stated.
“Whether product designs, a vaccine, business plans, contracts, financial books, oil reserve reports or customer and partner information, knowing what your organization needs to protect most is the first critical step in developing the right security strategy,” he added.
Verizon also found that hackers use a wide variety of tools and tactics when executing data breaches and that organizations discover attacks about 25 percent of the time.
Fey says enterprises should invest in a connected security system that can identify and avert threats at multiple network points.
He also advises organizations to implement cyber defense technology that is designed to provide real-time security incident data and to exchange threat intelligence data with other organizations.
