The Internet Society’s Online Trust Alliance just released its 2018 Cyber Incident & Breach Trends Report, which says “2018–Some Better, Some Worse, All Bad.”

That’s our experience, too. Below are our highlights from the report.

Although the number of data breaches and exposed records decreased, from ransomware and DDoS attacks were down,”(that’s the “some better”), “the financial impact to businesses by ransomware increased by 60 percent, losses from business email compromise (BEC) doubled, cryptojacking incidents…more than tripled” (that’s the “some worse”) and “there continued to be a steady stream of high-profile data breaches” (that’s the “all bad”).

It is estimated that ransomware will cost U.S. businesses $8 billion in 2018, growing to $20 billion in 2021. Those numbers are staggering. Those estimates confirm our experience that ransomware attackers are more targeted and vicious, and asking for higher ransom amounts when successful in infiltrating a system.

Supply chain attacks increased dramatically; according to the report, “formjacking” increased by 78 percent in 2018. Formjacking occurs when attackers “infect a website’s submission form via a third-party supplier or malicious code carried in ads and then either scrape the information or infect the user.” Symantec estimates that in 2018 about 5,000 websites a month contained formjacking code.

BECs increased in 2018 to more than 20,000 incidents resulting in $2 billion in losses, and which is expected to continue to rise.

The report ends by saying the trends will continue and that 95 percent of all incidents could have been prevented. It provides an outline of trends, and tips for preparedness and readiness, emphasizing that data security still comes down to people. We agree that “ongoing employee training is a critical key to success.”

[View source.]