With an increased number of severe data breaches, businesses are driving to continuously monitor and document evolving information security risks across their data ecosystems. However, digital transformation creates unique struggles for organizations as they attempt to embrace the cloud to ease business operations. Additionally, cybersecurity risks vary by region and industry, which pose additional concerns as global enterprises scale their businesses while trying to maintain data integrity, security, and availability. Thus, the drive to globalize and digitize business operations requires interconnected visibility across the data ecosystem to establish continuous monitoring and documentation to provide continuous assurance over internal controls and vendor risk management programs.
What is the global state of data breach risk?
The Ponemon 2018 Cost of a Data Breach report reviewed the global impact of data breaches:
North America:
United States
- $7.91 million, 31,465 records, 52% arose from malicious or criminal attacks
Europe:
France
- $4.27 million, 25,336 records, 55% arose from malicious or criminal attacks
Asia & Oceania:
Turkey
- $105 million, 21,300 records, 34% arose from malicious or criminal attacks
Although the United States leads the pack when it comes to the cost of a data breach and number of records, the regional differences also highlight the global impact of data security.
Unfortunately, while this data gives raw numbers, it does not account for industry differences or provide insight into the way in which cybercriminals infiltrated systems.
What are the most likely causes of a data breach?
According to the 2018 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, the top three incidents per pattern were:
- Denial of Service
- Privilege Misuse
- Crimeware
Meanwhile the top three breaches per pattern were:
- Web Applications
- Miscellaneous Errors
- Point of Sale
Unfortunately, while the Ponemon report provides geographical insight but fails to address data breach specific patterns, the Verizon report focuses on specific patterns but fails to give insight into the impact of geographic location.
What Is the industry state of data breaches?
The top five industries impacted by data breaches, according to the Verizon report, were:
- Public Sector
- Healthcare
- Education
- Professional
- Financial Institutions
The Verizon report details the types of breaches including but not limited to Crimware, Cyber-Espionage, Denial Of Service, and Web Applications. Additionally, it drills down into the types of actions and assets associated with the data breaches.
Again, the Verizon report fails to provide detailed and holistic insights because it does not account for geographic location or specific control weaknesses that increase the likelihood of a data breach.
SecurityScorecard’s global data insights provides detailed and holistic insights into risk
SecurityScorecard’s Global Data Insights overcomes the problems with traditional data breach reporting statistics.
Our platform scans the internet for publicly available information that allows organizations to detect weaknesses in their IT infrastructures as well as weaknesses within their vendor ecosystem.
Global Data Insights allows users to view not only the risks within their industry and ecosystem but to review geographically specific risks. Thus, organizations can review their industry by location and drill down further to the specific exploits most common within that segment.
SecurityScorecard details critical cybersecurity risks facing the financial services industry
SecurityScorecard’s platform analyzed financial institutions across North America, Europe, and Asia & Oceania. The research, based on over 1000 IP addresses, indicates several significant geographical differences that allow financial services organizations to prioritize and focus their monitoring and remediation processes to better protect data.
A low security rating means that cybercriminals can exploit the vulnerability more easily, thus making it a higher risk. Our platform noted:
Application Security
- All three regions scored lowest for application security, making it the biggest global risk facing the financial services industry.
DNS Health
- In North America, this was the second lowest scoring factor, making it the second biggest risk.
- In Asia & Oceania, this was the third lowest scoring factor, making it the third biggest risk.
Network Security
- In Europe, this was the second lowest scoring factor, making it the second biggest risk.
- In North America, this was the third lowest scoring factor, making it the third biggest risk.
Endpoint Security
- In Asia & Oceania, this was the second lowest scoring factor, making it the second biggest risk.
Patching Cadence
- In Europe, this was the third lowest scoring factor, making it the third biggest risk.
While this information provides insight into the highest risks of data breaches in larger geographic areas, it still provides little information about the individual entry points.
Global data insights provides geographical specific risk information
SecurityScorecard also reviewed geographic regions by country and focused on individual exploits.
Possible Typosquat Domain Detected
A cybercriminal targets a brand, creates a fake domain containing typographical errors, then sends fake emails to launch a social engineering attack.
Unsafe Implementation of Subresource Integrity
A company links an external resource to its website but fails to properly validate it, leaving the resource vulnerable to malware or website takeover.
TLS Uses Weak Cypher
A weak or obsolete encryption algorithm is used.
Obsolete Browsers Detected
Devices run outdated and potentially vulnerable web browsers which can increase the opportunity for client-side attacks.
SecurityScorecard global data insights details risks by industry, location, and type
Even with this information, international organizations may need more detail to protect their systems, networks, and software from region-specific risks.
Although possible typosquat domains and obsolete browsers are a global issue for the financial services industry, SecurityScorecard provides deeper insight into how this risk impacts specific locations.
For example, a global financial institution may need to prioritize browser patching cadence for its Asia & Oceanic affiliates more than its European franchises. Meanwhile, although Asia & Oceania partners experience possible typosquat domains, North American and European subsidiaries face a higher risk of this occurring.
How SecurityScorecard’s security ratings enable compliance, risk, and governance
SecurityScorecard’s platform provides a data-rich environment to provide insight cybersecurity risk by company, industry, and geographical location.
With over 1 million scorecards across the globe, our platform provides multi-national companies a way to continuously monitor and document risks based on segmented details. Digital transformation goes hand-in-hand with globalization. Thus, knowing the risks posed to a single data environment or vendor supply chain still leaves other risks obscured.
With SecurityScorecard’s platform, companies can continuously monitor across their entire ecosystems and their geographic locations to create detailed risk mitigation programs based on their individual needs.
Regulatory and industry standards increasingly focus on risk-based cybersecurity programs, recognizing that no “one-size-fits-all” approach exists. SecurityScorecard eases the burden by helping organizations segment their risks in ways that meet their unique needs.