InfoWatch Group experts presented an interesting report on information leaks recorded in 2020. Analysts cited the share of intentional data leaks and described the general situation with similar incidents noted over the past twelve months.
The covid year, according to InfoWatch Group, led to an increase in the number of less obvious leaks, so government organizations and commercial companies began to merge 4.5% less often than a year earlier (world statistics). But the share of intentional leaks and spills due to the fault of the outside has increased sharply.
The InfoWatch analytical center for 2020 recorded 2,395 leaks of confidential data from government agencies, commercial companies and other organizations. This figure turned out to be 4.5% less than the same in 2019, however, it was 5.8% higher than in 2018.
As the researchers noted, the United States played a major role in reducing the number of leaks in the world, as the West's rate fell by 20% in a year. However, 11 billion personal data records were still in the public domain during this one year period. Leaked names, surnames, email addresses, phone numbers, passwords, physical addresses, social security numbers, bank card details, etc.
But at the same time, the total number of such incidents decreased by 25.5% compared to 2019. Experts also noted a smaller volume of leaks: 4.6 million records in 2020 against 5.9 million in 2019. But there are more large leaks (213 versus 169 - by 26%).
The share of personal data in leaks in 2020 also increased from 76.6% to 80.6%, and payment information began to merge less frequently (from 9.8% to 4.8%). InfoWatch noted that the reason lies in the strengthening of the protection of the payment infrastructure and the complicated procedure for using the data of compromised bank cards.
The main vector of leaks in 2020 shifted towards an external intruder. The actions of third parties were the cause of 55.9% of such cyber incidents. The total share of intentional information leaks was 72.5%, and in 2019 - 60.2%.
