External Attacks Are Still More Likely Than Internal
2022 Verizon’s annual Data Breach Information Report (DBIR) findings indicate that data compromises are considerably more likely
to result from external attacks than from any other source. Nearly three out of four cases came from outside the victim organization. Business partners were involved in 39 percent of the data breaches. Internal sources accounted for the fewest number of incidents (18 percent).
The relative infrequency of data breaches attributed to insiders may be surprising to some. It is widely believed and commonly reported that insider incidents outnumber those caused by other sources. While certainly true for the broad range of security incidents, our caseload showed otherwise for incidents resulting in data compromise. This finding, of course, should be considered in light of the fact that insiders are adept at keeping their activities secret.
Some things haven’t changed since Verizon first published their report back in 2008.
The 2008 cyber2 security world allowed limited access to handheld wonder machines. There was the belief that insider incidents outnumbered external ones. Business stakeholders felt it was “certainly true for the broad range of security incidents.” Look back now, after 15 years of time-wasting apps. People learned to trust the statistics in things that can be reliably counted. It can confidently stated that External actors are much more common than Internal every year. And 2021-22 was not an exception. 80% of breaches were caused by actors who were external to the organizations.