A Canalys report found that 31 billion data records were compromised in 2020, up by 171% from the previous year and making up more than 50% of the 55 billion data records compromised since 2005, according to ZDNet.
The report also stated a 60% increase in ransomware incidents, compared to 2019.
"Prioritize cybersecurity and invest in broadening protection, detection and response measures or face disaster," Matthew Ball, chief analyst at Canalys, warned. Researchers cite a link between the increase in cybersecurity incidents and the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced companies worldwide to go digital, even without sufficient knowledge about new security requirements.
"These measures were often at the expense of cybersecurity and bypassed longstanding corporate policies, leaving many exposed to exploitation by highly organized and sophisticated threat actors, as well as other more opportunistic hackers. For many, cybersecurity was an afterthought, as they had to focus primarily on staying in business," the report indicated.
Jill Aitoro leads editorial for SC Media, and content strategy for parent company CyberRisk Alliance. She 20 years of experience editing and reporting on technology, business and policy.
TechCrunch reports that Facebook was revealed to have covertly conducted Snapchat network traffic interception and decryption since 2016 as part of the initiative dubbed "Project Ghostbusters" that sought to bolster user behavior analysis and better compete with the instant messaging app.
More than 1,800 stores on major e-commerce platform Shopify using Saara's EcoReturns and WyseMe plugins had 25 GB of data exposed due to the developer's misconfigured MongoDB database, according to Cybernews.
Cybernews reports that the California Department of Food and Agriculture had individuals' sensitive and personal information leaked to "external users" following the compromise of its external Plant Health and Pest Prevention website discovered earlier this month.