Are Megabreaches Out? E-Thefts Downsized in 2010
Summary: Verizon's fourth annual Data Breach Investigations Report, drawing on about 800 new incidents investigated with the U.S. Secret Service, found breached records fell from 361 million in 2008 to 144 million in 2009 to just 4 million in 2010. The report attributes the drop to criminals shifting toward smaller, easier targets - point-of-sale compromises, account takeovers and ACH fraud - rather than any improvement in security, noting payment card data still accounted for 98 percent of records stolen and appeared in 78 percent of incidents.
What you should know: The record count fell while breach frequency rose, and nearly one-third of incidents required physical proximity - ATM and gas pump skimmers, where one spree can hit 50 to 100 business locations. A shrinking headline number is not evidence your exposure shrank.
Read the original at Krebs on Security ↗
- Topics
- Data Breaches
- Related
- TSMC employee data breach linked to cloud provider Cyber Risks · Nov 15, 2026Data Breach at La Poste Subsidiary Maileva Affects 22 Million People in France Cyber Risks · Nov 15, 2026City of Osaka warns of data breach impacting 1 million as Japan reels from dozens of cyber incidents Cyber Risks · Nov 13, 2026