Internal security threats have become the top attack vector in 2023, with 94.6% of data breaches occurring due to financial reasons. Due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, security experts expected most of these attacks to be carried out by external or state-sponsored attackers. Money serves as a primary driver for a growing spate of cyber attacks.

However, trends observed in Verizon’s latest investigative report show that companies should be more vigilant about bolstering their existing security practices. Most of the data breaches occurred due to misuse and errors.

Money remains central to cyber crimes

The report reveals that it is organized crime that dominates as the top threat actor, accounting for 76% of the breaches involved.

Furthermore, ransomware remains the preferred method for stealing money from targets. It constituted 15.5% of the security incidents. The share of ransomware in data breaches also holds steady at 24% for the second year.

Further analysis from Verizon's latest Data Breaches report shows that the ransomware threat is expected to grow. About 62% of the incidents involved organized crime actors, with a further 59% of incidents motivated by financial greed.

Even as cyber threats continue to evolve, the most successful ones tend to target the weakest link - the human layer.

You can read about it and other findings from Verizon here:

• Human error continues to lead to most data breaches

• Ransomware attacks in 2023 display a worrisome trend

• 10 Key Takeaways from Verizon DBIR 2023 Report

The good news is that with the right cybersecurity awareness training, netizens can get the upper hand on social engineers.