Business Context: We are in a time where businesses are more digitally advanced than ever, and as technology improves, organizations’ security postures must be enhanced as well. Failure to do so could result in a costly data breach, as we’ve seen happen with many businesses. The cybercrime landscape has evolved, and threat actors are going after any type of organization, so in order to protect your business’s data, money and reputation, it is critical that you invest in an advanced security system. Cyber security can be described as the collective methods, technologies, and processes to help protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of computer systems, networks and data, against cyber-attacks or unauthorized access. a. Information Security vs. Cyber Security vs. Network Security: Information security (also known as InfoSec) ensures that both physical and digital data is protected from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, inspection, recording or destruction. Information security differs from cyber security in that InfoSec aims to keep data in any form secure, whereas cyber security protects only digital data. Cyber security, a subset of information security, is the practice of defending your organization’s networks, computers and data from unauthorized digital access, attack or damage by implementing various processes, technologies and practices. With the countless sophisticated threat actors targeting all types of organizations, it is critical that your IT infrastructure is secured at all times to prevent a full-scale attack on your network and risk exposing your company’ data and reputation. Network security, a subset of cyber security, aims to protect any data that is being sent through devices in your network to ensure that the information is not changed or intercepted. The role of network security is to protect the organization’s IT infrastructure from all types of cyber threats including: Viruses, worms and Trojan horses a. Zero-day attacks b. Hacker attacks c. Denial of service attacks d. Spyware and adware Your network security team implements the hardware and software necessary to guard your security architecture. With the proper network security in place, your system can detect emerging threats before they infiltrate your network and compromise your data. There are many components to a network security system that work together to improve your security posture. The most common network security components include: a. Firewalls b. Anti-virus software c. Intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDS/IPS) d. Virtual private networks (VPN) Network Intrusions vs. Computer intrusions vs. Cyber Attacks 1. Computer Intrusions: Computer intrusions occur when someone tries to gain access to any part of your computer system. Computer intruders or hackers typically use automated computer programs when they try to compromise a computer’s security. There are several ways an intruder can try to gain access to your computer. They can Access your a. Computer to view, change, or delete information on your computer, b. Crash or slow down your computer c. Access your private data by examining the files on your system d. Use your computer to access other computers on the Internet. 2. Network Intrusions: A network intrusion refers to any unauthorized activity on a digital network. Network intrusions often involve stealing valuable network resources and almost always jeopardize the security of networks and/or their data. In order to proactively detect and respond to network intrusions, organizations and their cyber security teams need to have a thorough understanding of how network intrusions work and implement network intrusion, detection, and response systems that are designed with attack techniques and cover-up methods in mind. Network Intrusion Attack Techniques: Given the amount of normal activity constantly taking place on digital networks, it can be very difficult to pinpoint anomalies that could indicate a network intrusion has occurred. Below are some of the most common network intrusion attack techniques that organizations should continually look for: Living Off the Land: Attackers increasingly use existing tools and processes and stolen credentials when compromising networks. These tools like operating system utilities, business productivity software and scripting languages are clearly not malware and have very legitimate usage as well. In fact, in most cases, the vast majority of the usage is business justified, allowing an attacker to blend in. Multi-Routing: If a network allows for asymmetric routing, attackers will often leverage multiple routes to access the targeted device or network. This allows them to avoid being detected by having a large portion of suspicious packets bypass certain network segments and any relevant network intrusion systems. Buffer Overwrit...

Between the third quarter of 2024 and the second quarter of 2025, the number of records exposed in data breaches in the United States decreased significantly. In the most recent measured period, over 16.9 million records were reported as leaked, down from around 494.17 million in the third quarter of 2024.

In 2024, the number of data compromises in the United States stood at 3,158 cases. Meanwhile, over 1.35 billion individuals were affected in the same year by data compromises, including data breaches, leakage, and exposure. While these are three different events, they have one thing in common. As a result of all three incidents, the sensitive data is accessed by an unauthorized threat actor. Industries most vulnerable to data breaches Some industry sectors usually see more significant cases of private data violations than others. This is determined by the type and volume of the personal information organizations of these sectors store. In 2024 the financial services, healthcare, and professional services were the three industry sectors that recorded most data breaches. Overall, the number of healthcare data breaches in some industry sectors in the United States has gradually increased within the past few years. However, some sectors saw decrease. Largest data exposures worldwide In 2020, an adult streaming website, CAM4, experienced a leakage of nearly 11 billion records. This, by far, is the most extensive reported data leakage. This case, though, is unique because cyber security researchers found the vulnerability before the cyber criminals. The second-largest data breach is the Yahoo data breach, dating back to 2013. The company first reported about one billion exposed records, then later, in 2017, came up with an updated number of leaked records, which was three billion. In March 2018, the third biggest data breach happened, involving India’s national identification database Aadhaar. As a result of this incident, over 1.1 billion records were exposed.

During the third quarter of 2025, data breaches exposed more than ** million records worldwide. Since the first quarter of 2020, the highest number of data records were exposed in the third quarter of ****, more than **** billion data sets. Data breaches remain among the biggest concerns of company leaders worldwide. The most common causes of sensitive information loss were operating system vulnerabilities on endpoint devices. Which industries see the most data breaches? Meanwhile, certain conditions make some industry sectors more prone to data breaches than others. According to the latest observations, the public administration experienced the highest number of data breaches between 2021 and 2022. The industry saw *** reported data breach incidents with confirmed data loss. The second were financial institutions, with *** data breach cases, followed by healthcare providers. Data breach cost Data breach incidents have various consequences, the most common impact being financial losses and business disruptions. As of 2023, the average data breach cost across businesses worldwide was **** million U.S. dollars. Meanwhile, a leaked data record cost about *** U.S. dollars. The United States saw the highest average breach cost globally, at **** million U.S. dollars.

India saw a significant jump in cyber crimes reported in 2022 from the previous year. That year, over ****** cyber crime incidents were registered. Karnataka and Telangana accounted for the highest share during the measured period. Uttar Pradesh leads the way The northern state of Uttar Pradesh had the highest number of cyber crimes compared to the rest of the country, with over * thousand cases registered with the authorities in 2018 alone. India’s tech state, Karnataka, followed suite that year. A majority of these cases were registered under the IT Act with the motive to defraud, or sexually exploit victims. It's a numbers game It was estimated that in 2017, consumers in India collectively lost over 18 billion U.S. dollars due to cyber crimes. However, these were estimates based only on reported numbers. In a country like India, it is highly likely that the actual figures could be under-reported due to a lack of cyber crime awareness or the mechanisms to classify them. Recent government initiatives such as a dedicated online portal to report cyber crimes could very well be the main factor behind a sudden spike in online crimes from 2017 onwards.