A report from Verizon found that large-scale financial cybercrime and state-affiliated espionage dominated the security landscape in 2012 accounting for 75% and 20% of all data breaches.
The report, Verizon 2013 Data Breach Investigations Report, also found that the proportion of incidents involving hacktivists was steady but the amount of data stolen decreased, as many hacktivists shifted to other methods such as distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.
Wade Baker, principal author of the report, said that no organisation is immune to a data breach in this day and age.
"We have the tools today to combat cybercrime, but it’s really all about selecting the right ones and using them in the right way," Baker said.
"In other words, understand your adversary – know their motives and methods, and prepare your defences accordingly and always keep your guard up."
The report notes that 37% of breaches affected financial organisations, and 24% affected retailers and restaurants.
According to the report, 20% of network intrusions involved the manufacturing, transportation and utilities industries, with the same percentage affecting information and professional services firms.
The report said that of all cyberattacks, 38% impacted larger organisations in 27 different countries and 92% of breaches were perpetrated by outsiders while 14% were committed by insiders.
Verizon said in terms of attack methods, hacking was a factor in 52% of data breaches and 76% of network intrusions exploited weak or stolen credentials such as user name or password while 40% incorporated malware like malicious software, script or code used to compromise information.
