“Symantec has established the most comprehensive source of Internet threat data in the world through the Symantec™ Global Intelligence Network, which is made up of more than 41.5 million attack sensors and records thousands of events per second. This network monitors threat activity in over 157 countries and territories through
a combination of Symantec products and services such as Symantec DeepSight™ Threat Management System, Symantec™ Managed Security Services, Norton™
consumer products, and other third-party data sources…In 2013 much attention was focused on cyber-espionage, threats to privacy and the acts of malicious insiders. However the end of 2013 provided a painful reminder that cybercrime remains prevalent and that damaging threats from cybercriminals continue to loom over businesses and consumers…This year’s ISTR once again covers the wide-ranging threat landscape, with data collected and analyzed by Symantec’s security experts. In this summary, we call out seven areas that deserve special attention…2013 Was The Year of Mega Breach Our Internet Security Threat Report 17 reported 2011 as the Year of the Data Breach. The year was extraordinary because in addition to increased cybercrime-driven breaches, Anonymous in acts of hactivism breached dozens of companies. With Anonymous less active, breach numbers returned to more predictable growth in 2012. And then came 2013. If 2011 was the year of the breach, then 2013 can best be described as the Year of the Mega Breach. The total number of breaches in 2013 was 62 percent greater than in 2012 with 253 total breaches. It was also larger than the 208 breaches in 2011. But even a 62 percent increase does not truly reflect the scale of the breaches in 2013. Eight of the breaches in 2013 exposed more than 10 million identities each. In 2012 only one breach exposed over 10 million identities. In 2011, only five were of that size. 2011 saw 232 million identities exposed, half of the number exposed in 2013. In total over 552 million identities were breached in 2013, putting consumer’s credit card information, birth dates, government ID numbers, home addresses, medical records, phone numbers, financial information, email addresses, login, passwords, and other personal information into the criminal underground.”