Report says criminals are better communicators than IT staffers

The potential of connected devices to create damage, injury and mayhem is an ongoing security concern. But so far, the Internet of Things is not being linked, in a significant way, to security problems, says a new study.

Verizon, in its just-released annual report of report of cyber incidents, identifies phishing as the major problem. Of the over 65,200 incidents it gathered data about, about 2,250 resulted in a breach, or confirmed disclosure of data to a third party. (In Verizon’s parlance, a security ‘incident’ falls short of a breach.)

A major problem remains phishing, where typically an email with a malicious attachment or link is used to entrap a victim. There were about 9,500 reported incidents, with just over 900 reports of confirmed data disclosure. The main perpetrators of these attacks are organized crime syndicates (89%) and state-affiliated actors (9%), it said.

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