Data Loss Incidents Hit Retailers, Financial Services Firms Hardest

Retailers and financial services experience the most data loss incidents while ransomware threats continue to surge, according to a new study from Intel Security’s McAfee Labs.

Data is lost every day at varying rates, based on the size of the organization. Nearly 35 percent of organizations with more than 5,000 employees reported having 51 to 75 data loss incidents per day.

Given that retailers and financial services deal with payment card information, it’s not surprising that those two verticals had more data loss incidents per day than other areas.

There are many different activities that can lead to security incidents within an organization. The top two activities are new project deployments and internal reorganization.

Overall, by the end of the second quarter of 2016, McAfee Labs has counted a total malware sample population (known as the zoo) of just over 600 million.

Mobile malware continued to grow during the second quarter of 2016, though it still remains only a small percentage of the total malware zoo.

One of the fastest-growing threat categories is ransomware, with McAfee Labs reporting its highest-ever rate of new samples in the second quarter. Overall, in the second quarter, the total volume of ransomware samples known to McAfee now tops 7 million, a 128% year-over-year increase.

Botnets continue to be a global threat, enabling attackers to make use of a globally distributed network of compromised machines. In the second quarter McAfee Labs reported that the most prevalent botnet in the world was Wapomi.

While most threat metrics are on the rise, there is at least one that is not. According to McAfee Labs, new Mac OS malware declined 70 percent during the second quarter. The study attributes the decline to reduced activity from the OSX.Trojan.Gen adware family.