PERSONAL DATA THREAT TO MILLIONS AS HACKING REACHES NEW HIGH

Millions of individuals are being robbed of personal information around the world as the hacking of company data has rocketed since 2010 according to a new report by KPMG.

The Data Loss Barometer, which tracks global trends for lost and stolen information, has found that external data leaks have affected more than 160 million people in 2012 through 835 separate incidences. This was a jump of more than 40% on the year before. And hacking accounted for 67% of the data loss by number of incidents.

But while in previous years hackers were just as likely to focus on stealing medical records or government information, the hacking of information held by businesses has jumped globally from only 8% of total incidents in 2010 to a shocking 52% in 2012.

Malcolm Marshall, Global Partner in charge of Information Protection for KPMG, said: “What we are witnessing is a shift from the accidental loss of data to deliberate theft – either to steal or re-sell that data or sometimes simply for sport or to make a great headline.

“Several of the world’s largest companies have been targeted over recent months by hackers who have grown in sophistication. It is now not just a lone hacker sitting in their bedroom but, in many cases, serious organisations backed by nation states who are leading this new phenomenon.”

Indeed, media companies out of all sectors both private and public, witnessed the highest incidence of hacking, with 98% of all data loss in 2012 accounted for in this way. The category of “organisations” referring to bodies such as clubs, unions and community centres were not far behind at 94% while retail was the third highest identified sector with 76%.

The severity of the issue was highlighted by the research in that “personally identifiable information” such as names and credit card information which can be used to identify a single person, remains by far the biggest reason for breaches of security at 46% in 2012. This compares with the next largest identified sector of password information that accounted for only 16% of incidents, although this had increased from just 5% in 2011.

Source: KPMG