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Half of data breaches are caused by lost electronic devices

Thursday 1 October 2015 11:58 CET | News

Nearly half of all data breaches occur when ID-theft criminals access information because users lost a device, a recent study shows.

According to a new TrendMicro report, nearly 41% of all data breach events from 2005 through 2015 were caused by lost devices such as laptops, tablets and smartphones. 

TrendMicro reported that data breach events happen in the following ways: 25% of breaches were caused by hacking and malware, 17.4% of breaches were caused by unintentional disclosure (not including lost devices) and 12% of breaches were caused by malicious insider leaks.

The report said that that health-care business sector was the largest target, accounting for 26.9% of data breaches this decade, followed by education (16.8%), government (15.9%) and retail (12.5%).

Findings also unveil that healthcare had a significant insider leak problem (17.5% of its breaches). Insider leaks were the primary source of identity theft cases (44.2%) and healthcare was hit harder by identity theft than any other sector, accounting for 29.8% of cases.


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Keywords: data breaches, online security, web fraud, biometrics, online authentication, digital identity
Categories: Fraud & Financial Crime
Companies:
Countries: World
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Fraud & Financial Crime






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