Insider threat? Pffft. Hackers on the outside are the ones mostly making off with your private biz data, says Verizon

Outside hackers were to blame for most data thefts last year, while in-house drama contributed to only a fifth of total computer security incidents, Verizon reckons. In its 13th Data Breach Investigations Report, which probed some 4,000 intrusions and network breaches in 2019, Verizon found that the online world is still a …

[Neil Barnes]

86 per cent of the breaches were financially motivated

What on earth were the remaining motivations? Are there really so many people poking around these things just for the hell of it?

[BebopWeBop]

Re: 86 per cent of the breaches were financially motivated

One might suspect that espionage of one sort or the other would be smeared across the results.

[Persona]

Re: 86 per cent of the breaches were financially motivated

What on earth were the remaining motivations?

If people considered motive, the defences might be more appropriate. On top of financial, there is curiosity, bragging rights, revenge, espionage and straight malevolence.

[Mark192]

Re: 86 per cent of the breaches were financially motivated

Persona asked "86 per cent of the breaches were financially motivated... What on earth were the remaining motivations?"

To save anyone else the bother, I skimmed through the report and it was silent on this.

[JohnG]

Re: 86 per cent of the breaches were financially motivated

For some people, politics might be sufficient motivation.

[Drew Scriver]

Re: 86 per cent of the breaches were financially motivated

Disgruntled employees are a big part of the remaining 14%, I think.

That segment is highly motivated and doesn't seek monetary compensation. Don't underestimate the potential threat of this motivation. For instance, it is a cornerstone of how the Mossad operates.

[Lotaresco]

Re: 86 per cent of the breaches were financially motivated

"Are there really so many people poking around these things just for the hell of it?"

Yes, astonishing as it may seem a lot of the attempts to get past firewalls are people poking around for the hell of it. If you install a firewall on your home network, you will be surprised at how much of the traffic blocked by the firewall is down to nosy individuals probing your IP address for vulnerabilities. In fact it's why you should have a firewall (pfsense is a cheap way to do it) because otherwise you live in blissful ignorance about who is trying to hack you, and often succeeding. It's not that evil wicked gummint you need to worry about it's those social justice warriors and plain old nosey parkers. Add pfblocker to your firewall and update its blocklists and you will see even more IPs blocked by reputation.

[Giovani Tapini]

Insider threat still there

but likely to be more related to availability than data loss. It is definitely still up there, Incompetence hasn't suddenly gone away!

[jgarbo]

Motive is irrelevant. Theft is your loss. Stop scratching your head for reasons, just stop it.it.

[Drew Scriver]

You are right in the sense that all threats must be taken seriously. However, motives will guide where to focus.

Also, I'm afraid that the 14% may be dismissed as less of a threat because of the lower numbers. However, I would argue that this may form a greater threat as motives like discontentment, anger, or even hatred may lead to much more devastating losses to a company.

A disgruntled employee might be more likely to ruin the company (or significantly damage it) because he (or she) doesn't need to consider how they can benefit financially.

[Anonymous Coward]

Clicking on Spam

Clicking on spam IS an insider threat. Companies need to hold users who do responsible.