Tag Archive for: Breaches

10 biggest financial data breaches of 2022

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Criminals have many means of stealing money and information from consumers, from scamming consumers directly to stealing their information from companies that hold it for them. For many cybercriminals, the quickest way to get a massive amount of valuable data is by targeting financial institutions.

Cybersecurity firm Flashpoint said in recently released data that the financial sector experienced the second highest number of data breaches in 2022, globally, behind government. U.S. banks were hit hardest, followed by institutions in Argentina, Brazil, and China.

This year, the number of consumer records leaked in breaches globally exceeded 254 million, according to Flashpoint. In the U.S. alone, data from the Maine attorney general indicates that around 9.4 million consumers across the country were affected by data breaches against financial companies.

At least 79 U.S. financial services companies reported data breaches affecting 1,000 or more consumers in 2022, and the largest breaches affect millions of consumers each. Here are some of the biggest data breaches affecting financial services companies this year.

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Flashpoint Year In Review: 2022 Breaches and Malware Threat Landscape

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KEY TAKEAWAYs

This blog highlights trends in notable observed advertisements on illicit forums for breached data, including databases or claims of network access; hacking services; and various strains and types of malware from January 1, 2022 through November 30, 2022.

  • The most frequently reported-on targeted sectors in 2022 were the government, financial, and retail industries.
  • The United States was the most-targeted geographic region in breach reporting this year.
  • Threat actors most commonly advertised and discussed hacking services, malware, and exploits on the popularly used forums Breach Forums, Exploit, and XSS.
  • Phishing pages were some of the most popular offerings within hacking service and malware advertisements.

Data breach landscape

Mostly motivated by greed, threat actors will target any organization regardless of sector. Therefore, data breaches provide key insights into the methods and tactics of hackers—since they will do whatever it takes to gain illegal access into their target’s network—using the plethora of advertised malware and hacking services available on illicit marketplaces.

As such, studying data breaches can help organizations and their security teams improve their security controls and incident response plans. Understanding who breaches affect, as well as where they take place, helps you gain visibility into your risk profile.

Here’s how the data breach landscape played out in 2022.

Most impacted sectors

According to our research team, there were a total of 4,146 reported global data breach events that occurred this year. Of those events, the top three sectors that experienced the most breaches were government, financial, and retail:

Figure 1: Top targeted sectors in breaches reporting this year

However, although sectors such as Healthcare and Technology also had been impacted by breach events, there was a fourth category that experienced the next most activity—”Unknown.” The unknown category represents datasets (whether advertised or leaked) where the victim’s identity was unavailable—either because that information was not disclosed, or because the data itself or the shared sample lacked any kind of identifiable information.

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Can VPNs protect you from data breaches? – Forbes Advisor Australia

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Concern about our individual cyber security is growing among Australians in the wake of numerous data breaches, including two significant attacks on Australian companies.

The Optus data breach impacted nearly 10 million customers, many of whom were required to replace vital documents, including their driver’s license. Not long after, Medibank Private revealed that all of its nearly four million customers have had their data hacked—some of which included detail medical information.

These two high-profile debacles have understandably prompted many Australians to contemplate how they can keep their data safe. Many have been wondering whether a VPN can help secure their data in an era of increased susceptibility to cyber hacks. Here’s the lowdown. 

Related: Guide to using VPNs in Australia

What Is A VPN?

VPN stands for ‘virtual private network—a service that protects your internet connection and privacy online. It does this by creating an encrypted digital tunnel between your computer and the internet, protecting your online identity and hiding your IP address (which is a series of numbers that identifies a device or network). 

Another way to understand a VPN is to picture it as an outer packet that ensures your data stays secure inside the packet. This keeps the data safe during transfer.

A VPN also allows you to use public Wifi hotspots safely.

How VPNs May Help

A VPN can quite literally block your IP address from everyone. Governments, hackers, or anyone else spying on you as you navigate the web, explains Australian cyber security expert, Stephen Kho. 

“For example, connecting to public Wi-Fi networks, such as those found in coffee shops, airports, and other public areas, is incredibly risky,” says Kho, of digital security company, Avast. 

“All it takes is one hacker connected on the same network and they can easily spy on all your activity. A VPN acts like an invisibility cloak, hiding everything you do on your phone or computer.

A VPN can protect you from prying eyes such as Google and other websites that track your browsing habits, Kho adds.

“If you’ve ever used the private browsing feature in your…

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Data Breaches Soared by 70% In Q3 2022 in an Otherwise Dull Year

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After a period of lull in the first half of 2022, data breaches grew significantly in Q3 2022. According to findings by Surfshark, data breaches surged by 70% quarter-over-quarter, to 108.9 million accounts in Q3 2022.

The Q3 2022 numbers are almost as big as the number of accounts/emails breached in the first half of the year (64.36 million accounts breached in Q2 2022, 63.06 million in Q1 2022).

“Q3 of 2022 showed a 70% increase in breaches compared to Q2, and while this number is lower than last year, it’s still an increase,” Surfshark noted.

Russians continued to be the top most breached people in Q3 2022 (22.28 million) after dethroning the U.S. (which had been the most breached country for a few years) in Q1 this year, corresponding to the conflict in Ukraine. However, their contribution to the list of data breaches continued to decline (24.59 million in Q2 2022, 42.99 million in Q1 2022).

Interestingly, the difference between Russian account breaches and the second-most breached country (the U.S. in Q1 and France in Q2 and Q3) also declined in Q3 2022, as the graphs below suggest. Additionally, more countries suffered a higher number of data breaches in Q3 2022 compared to the previous two quarters of 2022.

Data Breaches by Country, Q1, Q2, Q3, 2022

Data Breaches by Country for Q1, Q2 and Q3 2022 | Data Collated from Surfshark

See More: Cybersecurity Awareness Month: Eight Security Insights That You Should Know

Though Russia suffered the highest number of breached accounts, France registered the highest breach density (the breach count of a country per its population) of 212 leaked accounts per 1,000 people, followed by Russia at 153. France also saw a 1,710% increase in data breaches, surpassed only by Chile (1,852%), Bolivia (1,913%) and Zambia (3,886%). Overall, the global breach density stands at 14 accounts for every 1,000 people.

Region-wise, Europe was still the most affected, suffering half of the total data breaches in Q3 2022, followed by Asia, North America, South America, Africa, and Oceania. Surfshark assessed that 40% of the attacks in European breaches came from Russia.

“Looking at the big picture, 2022 seems like a promising year. The number of breached accounts…

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