Know the Factors & Results of a Data Breach

Data breaches are quite common these days due to the increased attack surface and sophisticated tools used by cybercriminals. Another key reason for the rise in data breach incidents is the lack of skilled cybersecurity professionals in the industry. You may have often heard about data breaches. But have you ever thought about why data breaches happen in the first place? Let’s explore this topic in detail to get a clear understanding of the factors causing data breaches and how data breaches affect us.

What are Data Breaches?

Any security incident where data is stolen from information systems without the knowledge and authorization of the owner is referred to as a data breach. All organizations that store data on systems or storage networks are vulnerable to data breaches if they lack sufficient data security. Organizations often store customer data (e.g., Personally Identifiable Information) which is subject to various data protection and privacy laws (e.g., GDPR). They must comply with these laws or face lawsuits otherwise.

In data breaches, attackers target sensitive and confidential information, for example, credit card details, social security IDs, trade secrets, business strategies, etc. Business organizations and national institutions are major victims of data breaches as they have many competitors (enemy companies or countries) who want to steal confidential information to damage their reputation, make them suffer huge losses, put them in legal trouble, and even compromise national security. 

How do Data Breaches Occur?

While many data breaches are a result of cyberattacks by attackers, most data breaches happen due to negligence and insufficient data security measures. This means most data breaches that expose confidential data unintentionally can be avoided by applying necessary security measures. 

Before attacking a target organization, attackers spend a lot of time identifying the weak points of the organization. They may use multiple ways to gather this information, including online resources, company social media, and negligent employees who can easily fall in phishing traps. It is estimated that an attacker spends around 5 months to successfully compromise an organization’s network security.

Some of the factors that contribute to data breaches include

An accidental insider

When an unauthorized person gets access to something that they are not supposed to, it is considered a data breach. An accidental insider can be a person using their co-worker’s system for accessing data they are not authorized to. Even if the person does not harm the organization in any way, data is breached as it is accessed by an unauthorized person. 

Malicious insiders

A malicious insider is an employee who intentionally accesses and shares confidential information with the malicious intent of harming the organization’s business or reputation. A malicious insider can be any person with authorized access to confidential information but has no right to share it outside.

Malicious outsiders

These are attackers that use multiple attack vectors to steal information for personal gains or revenge.

Stolen/lost devices

Devices without any security lock are easy targets and contribute to data breaches. Similarly, unprotected (unencrypted/unlocked) devices that get lost or stolen can be a cause of a data breach.

Data Breach Phases

Data breaches do not happen overnight. A data breach gets through various phases before becoming successful. What are the phases of a normal data breach? Let’s explore more about these data breach phases.

A data breach has typically the following phases:

Research

Attackers first select their target. Once they finalize a target (e.g., an organization), they start stalking social media accounts (e.g., LinkedIn) of the organization and its employees to get some vital information, especially weaknesses/vulnerabilities in the organization’s infrastructure. This information can help them design a strategy for planning an attack.  

Attack

Launching an attack is easier if attackers successfully identify security vulnerabilities that they can exploit to break into the systems of the organization. For launching attacks, they make use of two popular ways. 

• Network-based attacks: Attackers launch network attacks after detecting & exploiting security vulnerabilities in the organization’s infrastructure. Some popular network-based attacks launched by attackers include SQL Injection attacks, Session Hijacking, Sniffing attacks, etc.

• Social engineering attacks: Attackers can use social engineering techniques to compromise the organization’s network. They trick the organization’s employees to download malware on their systems. Phishing is one of the most common tools used for social engineering. Phishing emails are sent to employees with some misleading content, urging them to provide personal/official information and/or download malicious attachments (malware). 

Exfiltrate

After a successful attack, attackers exfiltrate data from the corporate systems. The malware downloaded in the previous stage can be used for data exfiltration. Attackers can use the exfiltrated data for blackmailing or launching more severe attacks that can damage their business and reputation adversely.

Common Methods Used by Attackers for Data Breaches

Now that we have learned about how data breaches occur and their phases, we’ll explore the methods attackers commonly use for data breaches. The most popular cyberattacks used by attackers for data breaches are the following:

Phishing

It is one of the social engineering attacks widely used to extract sensitive information by fooling employees that work in an organization. Attackers send phishing emails that claim to be from a trusted source asking for sensitive information such as login credentials, the company’s business strategies, etc. This will help them perform data breaches.

To avoid falling into the trap of phishing, it is essential to identify and take the right actions. Learn more about how to protect against phishing to stay secure.

Brute-Force attack

Sensitive information can be extracted if attackers get access to the login credentials of any employee working at the higher-management level. They can access business strategies, trade secrets, client data, and other sensitive information if they managed to log into a computer of a privileged employee. Brute-force techniques are used to guess passwords of any privileged account using some software tools. If the account password is weak, they can easily crack it and enter the system. 

To evade the risk of a successful brute force attack, passwords need to be strong and should always be protected from any unauthorized access.

Malware

Attackers can use malware and spyware to steal sensitive data. For introducing malware, they exploit security vulnerabilities present in the organization’s infrastructure. Phishing emails are the most favorite tool attackers use to download malware on systems. When any employee downloads a malicious attachment, malware gets downloaded and starts sending the data present on the system. In some cases, it hijacks the entire system to exfiltrate data.

Vulnerabilities That Cause Data Breaches

Without vulnerabilities or security weaknesses, attackers cannot compromise information systems and steal data. Do you know what are the vulnerabilities that can be exploited by attackers for a breach?

Let’s discuss some vulnerabilities here.

Weak credentials 

Using weak credentials for login and accessing confidential information is one of the major causes that lead to data breaches. Attackers can easily guess weak credentials and can enter the system to steal data. 

Compromised devices

Devices that are compromised such as rooted Android and jailbroken Apple devices have no security to protect data. Also, when devices are compromised by malware, attackers can bypass regular authentication steps that protect information to steal confidential data.

Stolen credentials

Attackers can steal important credentials via various means, including phishing. With the help of the stolen credentials, attackers can log in to the victim’s account and access/copy/share confidential information. 

Unintentional data exposure

Unintentional data exposure involves exposing sensitive data due to some mistake or negligence. Since there is no intent of causing harm to the organization, it is called unintentional data exposure. 

Mobile devices

Mobile devices here are BYOD devices that employees use for office work. As these devices are less secure than corporate devices, they are more vulnerable to malware, thereby increasing the attack surface. If BYOD devices get compromised, attackers can easily access corporate secrets and sensitive information as these devices have access to corporate networks.

Third-party access

Using third-party vendors can increase the attack surface. As third-party vendors have access to corporate systems for business purposes, attackers can find their way via these vendors and cause data breaches

How can a Data Breach Affect Us?

A data breach can affect individuals, private organizations, and government institutions alike. However, the aftereffects or results would be different for each entity depending on their business, market reputation, the kind of data breached, etc. Data breaches cost organizations millions of dollars in the present world. This is because data handling rules are stricter now, making it costlier for organizations to overlook data security. Read more about the cost of a data breach to know exactly how disastrous a data breach can be.

Some common devastating effects of a data breach

• For enterprises: The most important thing for private organizations is their reputation in the market. Data breaches can severely damage their reputation, making their investors lose interest in further investments or even withdraw investments already done. Also, their customer base will decrease as people will not stay associated with them due to their failure in protecting their customers’ data. Organizations that store confidential information such as Personally Identifiable Information (PII), Payment details, and Personal Health Information (PHI) of their customers are subject to strict laws like GDPR, PCI-DSS, and HIPAA. Non-compliance with these rules results in hefty fines and penalties.

• For government institutions: Government institutions handle very sensitive data (e.g., military operations, national secrets, etc.). If these institutions become a victim of data breaches, they would pose a national security threat. Any negligence in handling top-secret data will not just affect those particular institutions but also defame the nation.

• For individuals: Due to a data breach, individuals may face identity theft and exposure of their social security numbers, PAN cards, Voter IDs, and Aadhar details. These details are crucial because attackers can use them to fake victims’ identities to perform malicious acts on their behalf. For example, they can take credit cards or loans in the name of the victim. Failing to pay credit card bills or repay loans will land the victim in legal trouble. 

Data Breach Prevention

Most data breaches can be prevented by implementing certain security best practices. 

Best practices for enterprises

Enterprises must implement the following security best practices to avoid data breaches:

• Timely patch systems & networks: Unpatched systems and networks (e.g., outdated software, firmware, & OS) have security flaws that could be exploited to perform a data breach. These security vulnerabilities must be patched before attackers know about them. To do this, organizations must patch their systems & networks timely. 

• Increase cyber awareness among employees: Educating employees on various cyberattacks and their prevention is the key to ensuring a safe workplace. Apart from educating employees on how to handle cyber incidents, enforcing good cybersecurity-related guidelines in the workplace will help organizations prevent data breaches.

• Implement security measures: Organizations need to create processes to identify and fix vulnerabilities in their networks. Monitor and audit all systems connected to their corporate networks to ensure no passage is left open for attackers to enter.  

• Develop contingencies: Having proper planning for uncertain situations like data breaches is essential. Organizations must have a good disaster recovery plan in place if a data breach occurs. They should have declared points of contact, mitigation steps, and disclosure strategies beforehand to avoid last-minute confusion when such incidents happen.  

Best practices for employees & individuals

Employees & individuals must ensure to implement the following best practices to stay safe:

• Secure banking-related details: Ensure all personal and banking-related information is stored in a secure place where no unauthorized access is allowed. Periodically check your bank account to identify any suspicious activities like a change of password, unauthorized transactions, etc.

• Be aware of new social engineering attacks: Stay abreast of new social engineering techniques used by cybercriminals. This includes knowing about advanced phishing strategies and their prevention.

• Do not share sensitive information online: Never share personal sensitive information online. Check the information you share on various social media platforms to avoid any possible cyberattack.

• Secure all personal & work devices: Ensure all devices you use for storing personal and confidential information have a security lock to prevent data breaches. Do not leave your devices unlocked as it can lead to a data breach. Make use of Multifactor authentication if needed.

Wrapping Up

Data security is of the utmost importance for organizations as well as individuals. However, it has become more difficult than ever to ensure data security these days due to the increased use of digital assets and the Internet. This resulted in a wide attack surface that can be exploited by attackers. Exercising due diligence with proper security measures can help you prevent not only data breaches but also other cyberattacks. Check out our data breach quiz to test your knowledge!

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