Beazley announces findings from analysis of 1,500 data breaches

Beazley, a pioneer in breach response insurance, announced on Sept. 18 findings from an analysis of more than 1,500 data breaches at the International Association of Privacy Professionals’ (IAPP) “Privacy Academy and CSA Congress.”

Top insights from data breaches serviced by Beazley in 2013 and 2014:

• The two most common sources of breaches seen by Beazley      are unintended disclosure, such as misdirected emails and faxes (31%) and      the physical loss of paper records (24%), which is particularly prevalent      among healthcare organizations.
• Breaches due to malware or spyware represented only 11%      by number of breaches in 2013 and 2014, but they have been increasing,      with the total number of breaches in this category growing by 20% between      2013 and 2014.   Due to heavy forensics costs (money spent to      find out exactly how the breach occurred) these breaches are on average      4.5 times more costly than the largest loss category, unintended      disclosure.

“With more information being stored electronically and in the cloud, the risk of data breaches is growing,” said Katherine Keefe, head of Beazley Breach Response (BBR) Services.  “Consumers expect their privacy will be protected, and a data breach can have serious reputational and financial impact.”

The number of individuals affected by the data breaches Beazley has handled now exceeds 14 million.