Data breaches are among the most frequent and dangerous cyber threats today. Data breach often happens when a person gains access to secret information and violates its confidentiality. Such actions can be done on purpose: hacker data theft, espionage, both external and done by malicious insiders.
Sometimes the databases of big and small companies get publicly available due to the carelessness of IT employees, and top managers do not suspect that the data of their customers or employees is at risk.
Every year, there are more and more news pieces about data leaks. Disclosure of confidential information entails extremely unpleasant consequences: damage to reputation, financial losses, and the loss of intellectual property.
What are the reasons for data leakage?
Leaks occur due to the fact that the databases were not reliably protected and not taken out of the public domain. Not enough attention is paid to this issue, and not all companies treat security as their highest priority.
There are also many ways to hack any computer network thanks to errors in the configuration, vulnerabilities, or virus attacks. Various devices (especially portable ones) constitute a big risk factor. Personal devices are often used to access corporate networks. Their incorrect configuration, connection to insecure networks, or weak passwords may also cause data leaks.
Sometimes, employees of various companies and institutions sell data. Employees may want to sabotage their company and deliberately pass the information on to competitors. Employees can be bribed to pass necessary info.
Even if there is no malicious intent, a human mistake can be one more reason for the leaks of critical information. Operational errors and negligence of employees may lead to huge problems.
For each of these reasons, databases of online stores, offline stores, banks, insurance companies, travel agencies, medical institutions, and other organizations regularly get publicly available. Most often, they first appear on hacker forums where perpetrators try to sell stolen records. The further flow of events depends on who discovers those records first - security researchers or cybercriminals. Sad, but criminals often win here.
Who needs someone else's data?
Again, first, resellers present information, malefactors who advertise and sell it on the Dark Web sites. Hackers buy databases as stolen records may come in handy for more precise setting of targeted advertising campaigns for those who want to sell their goods or services. Besides, scammers definitely need user data to get more detailed information about their potential victims.
Personal information is the foundation upon which social engineering attacks are built. The more the attacker knows, the easier it is for him to gain confidence in the victim and force him to take the necessary actions: to give out even more information for a further attack or tell the numbers from the received SMS, click on the malicious links, and infect his computers, etc. The frequent buyers of the leaked databases are social engineering scammers and call center employees of companies that practice aggressive marketing.
How much do database recods cost?
In recent years, there has been a high demand for databases, which, of course, affects their cost. According to the black-market prices, the most popular commodity is banking sector data.
Information about bank clients costs from $70 to $500. Data on customers of mobile operators can be purchased from $5 up to $300.
How to protect against data breaches?
As the volume of publicly available data is constantly growing, timely detection and prevention of incidents have become one of the most serious information security problems. To reduce the risk of data breaches, you need to understand where the threat is coming from. There are two main risk factors - people and devices.
The basic steps to mitigate the risk of data breaches at the corporate level are:
- Educate and inform employees.
- Carefully manage access to critical data.
- Ensure that data leaks are detected early.
- Employ information security professionals.
- Build robust processes to prevent user errors.
- Use specialized solutions like DLP systems.
An average user can hardly influence the fact of his personal data leak. Basic tips are as follows:
- Do not post your personal data anywhere.
- Create a separate mailbox for important messages.
- Do not overshare in social networks.
- Use strong passwords and change them regularly; desirably use multi-factor authentication.