For a quick comparison to last year, Accenture Security surveyed thousands of executives about cybersecurity in 2017 and again in 2018.

“With significant ransomware incidents like WannaCry in 2017, targeted attacks have more than doubled in the space of a year (232 on average in 2018 versus 106 in 2017). Organizations have been able to prevent 87% of attacks, compared with only 70% in 2017.

The research shows that 83% of survey respondents believe that breakthrough technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine or deep learning, user behavior analytics, and blockchain, are essential to securing the future of their organizations.

C-level executives and board directors should take heart; the analysis shows their growing support for cybersecurity in recent years is starting to pay dividends and, as a result, business leaders are gaining ground on cyber attackers.”

Let’s take a peek back at the low points of the year for security attacks. Highlighted below are the major breaches so far in 2018, based on key market segment.

Breaches in the Finance Sector
● Equifax revealed that another 2.4 million customers have been affected by its massive data breach, raising the count to 147.5 million customers who have had their private and personal data leaked online.
● Three Mexican banks experienced “incidents” in April when operating the SPEI, Mexico’s interbank electronic transfer system.
● Cybercriminals may have the stolen data of nearly 90,000 customers from two of Canada’s largest banks.
● Hackers used phishing emails to break into a Virginia bank in two separate cyber intrusions over an eight-month period, making off with more than $2.4 million total.

Breaches in the Healthcare Sector
● In March, UnityPoint Health employees fell victim to a phishing email scheme that exposed the data of more than a million patients.
● DNA testing company MyHeritage lost 92 million user emails and hashed passwords.
● Baltimore-based LifeBridge Health and LifeBridge Potomac Professionals was hit by a malware attack that potentially exposed the private information of about 500,000 patients for more than a year.

Breaches in the Identity Sector
● Marketing and data aggregation firm Exactis left about 340 million records exposed on a publicly accessible server.
● Hackers breached Under Armour’s MyFitnessPal app in late February, compromising usernames, email addresses, and passwords from the app’s roughly 150 million users.
● The Facebook fiasco with Cambridge Analytica blew up in March. Some 87 million users of the social network had their data shared without their knowledge or consent.

Breaches in the Public Sector
● In March, the Department of Justice indicted nine Iranian hackers over an alleged spree of attacks on more than 300 universities in the United States and abroad.
● At the end of May, officials warned about a Russian hacking campaign that has impacted more than 500,000 routers worldwide.
● An attack on the city of Atlanta paralyzed a wide range of its municipal systems. The data kidnappers, who demanded $51,000 in Bitcoin, did some lasting damage, including erasing years of police video records.

For more insight into the current landscape

Cyber Security Technologies provides enterprise solutions and technology consulting in cybersecurity, systems integration, engineering development and product support. We also deliver application customization and consultation services to businesses for cross-platform integration of the patented RecordVault product or technology incorporating software-based multifactor authentication (MFA).

If you have concerns about safety or cybersecurity for your business, contact us for a free consultation.

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