A new study released this week by a leading security vendor (Gemalto) - the Breach Level Index for the first half of 2017 - finds that 918 data breaches led to a record 1.9 billion data records being compromised worldwide in the first half of 2017, a 164% increase over the the first six months of 2016. Moreover, identity theft accounted for 74% of all data breaches in the first six months of 2017, up 49% from the second half of 2016, and malicious outsiders were responsible for 74% of breaches, an increase of 23%.
In response, Lisa Baergen, Marketing Director for NuData Security, comments: “Our data is the currency for hackers who use it for identity theft. This tsunami of stolen information is the driver behind identity theft which has already reached epidemic proportions. A report by Cifas, an anti-fraud organization, reveals that there was a total of 89,000 cases of identity theft recorded in the first six months of this year which is up by 5% for on the same period last year and a new record high with identities being stolen at the rate of almost 500 a day. Hackers have obliterated traditional security methods and are now employing machine learning and automation to steal information and impersonate real customers.
"All of this points to a much-needed paradigm shift in how we think about authentication, whereby identity isn’t tested online with a single factor such as a password, 2FA, physical biometric or any other single data point. Instead, the verification should be based on multiple factors that are combined and analysed to give a more complete risk assessment of the user – even if legitimate credentials are presented by the hacker. The test should also be based on dynamic information that isn’t stored and therefore isn’t subject to theft, mimicry or spoofing. There are tools, such as passive biometrics, on the market now that base verification tests on dynamic data, not solely single-factors. These multi-factor methods are the only way we are going to move beyond much of this identity fraud in the future.”