As our reliance on digital technology grows, the security of our personal and professional data becomes increasingly critical. Every swipe, click, and keystroke generates data that, when properly safeguarded, powers our lives and businesses. However, this digital goldmine also attracts those with the malicious intent to steal data, leading to one of the most pressing concerns of our time: data breaches. These incidents can have significant and widespread consequences for both affected individuals and organizations.
In this blog post, we’ll explore everything you need to know about data breaches – unpacking what they are, how a data breach occurs, and what can be done to protect against them.
Defining the threat: What is a data breach?
A data breach is a form of cyber attack that seeks to access, leak, modify or delete sensitive or confidential information without authorization. Such sensitive information can be:
Personally identifiable information (PII): Such as a person’s name, biometric data, social security number, or other personal details.
Protected health information (PHI): Including individual’s past, present, or expected future physical and mental health.
Personal or organizational financial information: Such sensitive financial information as credit card details, bank accounts details, tax forms, financial statements, invoices, and more.
Confidential business information: Encompassing contracts, trade secrets, business plans and strategies, customer lists, communications, and other proprietary information.
Intellectual property: Such as software code, prototypes, blueprints, patents, and similar assets.
Other non-public data: Any data not intended to be public.
A data breach occurs when cyber criminals gain unauthorized access to a target network to access sensitive information and financial data. This can happen through various methods, including phishing attacks, malware infections, or exploiting vulnerabilities in software. Once inside, the unauthorized parties can extract data, disrupt operations, or hold systems hostage for ransom. The stolen confidential information can then be used for identity theft, financial gain, corporate espionage, or sold on the dark web.
In 2023, the average cost of a data breach reached an all-time high of $4.45 million, reflecting a 15.3% increase since 2020 (IBM Security, 2023).
Over the years, several significant data breaches have affected billions of users. For instance, the Yahoo data breach of 2013 and 2014 exposed a total of 3 billion user accounts, making them the largest data breaches to date. Similarly, in 2021, over 30 000 US businesses were affected by an attack on the Microsoft Exchange email servers. So how do those data breaches occur?
What are the most common types of cyber attacks?
Data breaches happen through various methods, often involving a combination of technical flaws and human error. Here are the main ways in which data breaches happen:
Social engineering: Phishing, along with other forms of social engineering attacks, is a very common tactic to gain unauthorized access to a target systems and compromise data. A data breach caused by social engineering attacks often targets communication or collaboration tools, social media, and online banking accounts. They rely on deceiving legitimate users into clicking on a link that injects malware or sharing sensitive information. Consider implementing Managed Security Awareness programs to educate and train employees on recognizing and avoiding such attacks.
Malware: A malware attack occurs when an attacker tricks a target into opening a malicious attachment, link, or website. Once the target interacts with the malicious content, the attackers gain access to install malware on the user’s device. This malware can then steal credentials, monitor activities, or further infiltrate the network to gain access to sensitive information and data.
Ransomware: Ransomware attacks involve malicious software that encrypts a victim’s data, holding it hostage until a ransom is paid. Typically, attackers gain access by tricking users into downloading a malicious file or opening a malicious link so they can install malware. Once the malware is on the system, it will lock access to the system and/or encrypt the data, threatening to either make it public, make it unavailable, or destroy it. This type of malware can significantly disrupt operations and lead to data breach.
Code Injections: Code injection attacks, such as SQL injections, exploit vulnerabilities in a system’s software to insert malicious code. This code can compromise the system and provide unauthorized access to data. SQL injection is a common example of this type of attack. Implementing a Secure Code Review can help identify and mitigate these vulnerabilities.
Brute Force Attacks: Many passwords are simple and easy to guess, making brute force attacks an effective method to crack passwords and gain access to the target system. Without proper password management and multi-factor authentication (MFA), password guessing can be highly successful, leading to data leaks.
Accidental Insider: Using someone lost or stolen else’s device to access files or using an unauthorized personal device can constitute a data breach, even if no losses or damages occur. Poor password management and falling prey to phishing attacks are also accidental causes of data breach.
Malicious Insider: In contrast to accidental insiders, malicious insiders deliberately steal data, or leak data, or create the conditions for an outside attack to succeed. These actors misuse their privileges and authorizations within a system.
Man-in-the-Middle Attacks (MITM): MITM attacks allow attackers to eavesdrop on communications. These attacks are often paired with other methods that enable attackers to decrypt data in transit, obtain authentication details, hijack sessions, gain unauthorized access to confidential information and more.
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS): While DDoS attacks themselves do not lead to data leaks, they are sometimes used as a distraction to divert attention, allowing another attack to be launched to achieve a data breach.
The stages of a data breach
Regardless of the method utilized by attackers to breach a system and obtain private data, the process itself usually goes through several stages. Typically these stages are Research, Creating an entry point, Infiltrating the system, and Exfiltrating the data.
1. Research: In the initial stage, attackers gather detailed information about the target company and its systems. This involves comprehensive monitoring of the organization to identify key personnel, understand its structure, and discover potential vulnerabilities in operating systems and software. Attackers may examining employee behavior, collecting personal data that could be useful for guessing login credentials, and testing employees’ susceptibility to phishing attacks. When researching systems, attackers probe ports, check for missing updates and vulnerabilities, and may even launch a few basic attacks to observe the response. The aim is to identify potential weak spots and gather enough intelligence to plan the attack. Attackers may use publicly available information, social engineering tactics, or reconnaissance tools to build a detailed profile of the target.
2. Creating an entry point: Once sufficient research is conducted, attackers use the gathered intelligence to identify possible vulnerabilities and entry points into the target’s network. This can be achieved through various methods, such as phishing emails to trick employees into revealing login credentials, exploiting software vulnerabilities, or using malware to gain initial access. The goal is to find a weak spot that can be exploited to gain a foothold in the network and steal data.
3. Infiltrating the system: After establishing an entry point, attackers begin to move laterally through the breached network to locate the desired data. This process may involve altering the system’s security processes, creating new accounts, and escalating privileges to gain greater access. The goal is to navigate through the network without detection and prepare for data extraction.
4. Exfiltrating the data: Once attackers have deeply infiltrated the system and gained access to the targeted data, they begin the exfiltration process and the data leakage has started. This involves creating hidden copies of the data within the system and transferring these copies outside the network without drawing attention to the stolen data. Alternatively, attackers might encrypt the data to demand a ransom for its return.
Understanding these stages helps organizations recognize the warning signs of a potential data breach and implement effective measures to detect and mitigate such threats. By addressing vulnerabilities at each stage, businesses can significantly reduce the risk of a successful data breach. Regularly using Vulnerability Assessments Services and a Virtual CISO Services can help identify and mitigate these vulnerabilities.
What kinds of vulnerabilities can lead to a data breach?
Data breaches happen through various vulnerabilities, which attackers exploit to gain access to systems and data. Here are some of the most common vulnerabilities that can lead to a data breach:
Weak or stolen passwords
Weak credentials that can easily be guessed are one of the most common vulnerabilities exploited by attackers. Password guessing tools and databases of leaked passwords are frequently used, especially if unlimited attempts at guessing can be made.
Unsecured devices
The use of personal devices to access company systems constitutes a high-security risk. Without clear security standards that apply to all devices, a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy can act as an open door for attackers.
Unsecured Wi-Fi and hotspot connections
Wi-Fi networks and hotspots are common attack vectors. Unencrypted connections allow for communications to be intercepted via man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks, sessions to be hijacked, packets to be sniffed, and more. Even if the connection is end-to-end encrypted, attacks are still possible.
Software corruption, backdoors, and outdated components
Poorly written applications, unintentional backdoors, security vulnerabilities, and bugs can pose serious risks. Once a vulnerability is found and made public, such as through the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) list, attacks on vulnerable systems often proliferate rapidly. Companies that fail to apply necessary security patches and fixes are at high risk of suffering a data breach. Consider performing regular WAF Assessments to mitigate these risks.
Lack of proper security logging and monitoring
Failing to log and monitor important types of data, networks, network endpoints, devices, or other systems is not a direct vulnerability but creates a blind spot that makes it easier for attackers to go unnoticed. It also complicates data breach prevention and recovery because fewer traces are left of the attack and the vulnerability that enabled it.
Too many access permissions
Granting users excessive access and authority to handle sensitive data also increases the risk of a data breach if someone’s profile is hijacked. Misconfigured access privileges are a significant vulnerability and open the door to privilege escalation attacks, where attackers use existing permissions to gain even greater access within a system.
Unknown and unstructured data
As the volume of corporate data increases, companies sometimes accumulate poorly organized, structured, and labeled data. This shadow data, which is neither well-maintained nor well-secured, can easily be forgotten and becomes a prime target for attackers.
What are the effects of a data breach?
Data breaches can have significant reputational, personal, and even political consequences and financial losses, depending on the type of data stolen. Attackers typically aim to either sell the compromised data, demand ransom from the data breach victims, or deliberately leak the data and stolen credentials to expose the source and cause damage.
For example, when a company holding user data suffers a breach, this usually has serious implications for individuals, especially if the data includes personally identifiable information (PII) or health information (PHI). As a result, the company may face fines, lawsuits, and significant reputational damage. Additionally, it may lose important company secrets, intellectual property, and other critical information.
If a government agency suffers a data breach, it can lead to the exposure of sensitive, confidential and protected information, such as infrastructure details, military operations information, and national security data. Such data breaches can create serious security risks and be exploited by foreign entities to cause social, economic, or political instability.
When an individual’s private data is exposed, cyber criminals can use it to steal identities, gain access to social and financial accounts, exploit credit card and bank account numbers, misuse funds, ruin reputations, spread false information, and more.
Given the severe impact of data breaches, numerous regulations and laws have been established to protect sensitive information and data and outline how organizations should respond to such security incident.
Key Regulations and Laws
Several laws and industry standards are in place to ensure the protection of sensitive and personal data:
- European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): Mandates strict data protection measures and specifies how organizations must respond to data breaches.
- U.S. Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act: Requires critical infrastructure organizations to report data breaches promptly.
Additionally, specific legal implications and standards regulate the handling identity and access management and security of PII and PHI, such as:
- Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS)
- Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
- Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA)
These regulations also outline the consequences for organizations that fail to protect sensitive data, including fines, legal action, and reputational damage.
How to prevent data breach?
There are several measures that companies, government agencies and individuals can take to prevent data security breaches:
- Institute and maintain good security practices: Educate employees on compliance, especially regarding the use of mobile devices
- Conduct regular vulnerability assessments and penetration testing: Implement necessary changes and fixes based on the results
- Patch and update software systems promptly: Notify employees in case they use outdated software
- Implement high-grade encryption and backups for sensitive data: Create a recovery plan
- Require strong passwords and multi-factor authentication: Ensure passwords are changed periodically
- Use malware protection and implement endpoint security
- Disable unnecessary and vulnerable services
- Connect only to secured and monitored networks or personal networks
Prevent data breaches with AMATAS
Do you need help ensuring secure business operations to prevent the possibility of a data breach? AMATAS has extensive expertise and experience in helping clients store, secure, and handle data with high security. Our services can provide the necessary assistance to create robust data security. Get in touch and let’s discuss your data protection needs, and how we can help!
