Cyber threats, data breaches and high-risk vulnerabilities have been dominating January to June 2014, with financial, banking and retail sectors being prime targets of intensified cyber attacks, according to a new security report.
Highlighting the need for wide-ranging cybersecurity strategy to secure digital information, Trend Micro’s second quarter security roundup report noted that overall attacks exposed more than 10 million personal records as of July 2014.
Data theft mainly included customer names, passwords, email addresses, home addresses, phone numbers, and dates of birth, the
"Turning the Tables on Cybercrime: Responding to Evolving Cybercrime Tactics," the report noted.
Trend Micro CTO Raimund Genes said: "Organisations must treat information security as a primary component of a long-term business strategy rather than handling security issues as tertiary, minor setbacks.
"Similar to having a business strategy to improve efficiency, a well-thought-out security strategy should also improve current protection practices that achieve long-term benefits.
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"The incidents observed during this quarter further establish the need for a more comprehensive approach to security."
The report noted that more than 400 data breach events have been reported as of July 15, highlighting the need for organisations to detect and be aware of their core data in a bid to protect and develop an effective defence strategy to keep them secure.
Organisations hit with personal privacy breaches have experienced its impact on sales and earnings while leaving consumers unable to access accounts and address service disruption.
Thus, several countries have started working on developing stringent privacy and data collection regulations to address the issue.
Trend Micro technology and solutions VP, JD Sherry, said: "The reported attacks in the second quarter reveal that the wide spectrum of cyber threats can have a disastrous impact globally.
"Implementing a strategic incident response plan by forging collaborations, both internally and externally, will provide agencies and industries the resources to respond and protect against current threats to information security."
