Most breaches are still caused by PEBKAC and ID10T errors like falling for phishing

When it comes to data breaches, what big, bad cyber-boogeyman method should you fear and point the finger of blame at this year? The biggest security concern is not IoT, not mobile, not even ransomware; it’s you, us, mere humans, which are the weak link being exploited and the number one problem leading to breaches. It’s not some new attack attributed as the cause of most security incidents; oh no, it’s falling for phishing, which has been around since about the dawn of email.

Last year’s DBIR report indicated that 90% of security incidents trace back to PEBKAC and ID10T errors, and that hasn’t really changed according to Verizon's new 2016 Data Breach Investigations Report. Phishing still works, people still click. In fact, phishing works so well that it has “picked up dramatically over the prior year.” Before it was the leading cyber-espionage attack pattern, but now phishing can be blamed for seven of nine security incident patterns. Verizon reported that phishing has continued to trend upward and is found in the most opportunistic attacks as well as “sophisticated nation-state tomfoolery.”

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