Over 90 percent of breaches could have been prevented

According to data from the Online Trust Alliance (OTA), the non-profit with the mission to enhance online trust, 40% of breaches were the result of external intrusions, while 29% t were caused by employees, accidentally or maliciously, due to a lack of internal controls. The balance of incidents was primarily attributed to lost or stolen devices or documents (18%) and social engineering/fraud (11%).

OTA has analyzed over a thousand breaches involving the loss of personally identifiable information (PII) in 2014, as reported by the Open Security Foundation (OSF) and the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. In addition, the Alliance has released its 2015 Data Protection Best Practices and Risk Assessment Guides. In its Risk Assessment Guide, OTA introduced a framework detailing how to complete an assessment of both one’s own security practices and that of third-party vendors upon which businesses are increasingly reliant. These practices complement those recently outlined by President Obama to enhance data and consumer protection.