Many thanks to the Verizon RISK Team (along with the U.S. Secret Service and the Dutch High Tech Crime Unit) for publishing their 7th annual analysis of data breaches.  Compromised data continues to plague organizations worldwide, and studies like the 2011 Data Breach Investigations Report can help us all avoid becoming a victim – both as individuals and also as corporate citizens.

Here are a few noteworthy data points:

• Nearly 800 data breaches were reported in 2010, a sharp increase from the 900 breaches reported in the previous six years combined
• 4 million records were compromised in 2010  which is significantly less than the 144 million compromised in 2009
• Many breaches involved sending data externally – Take this as a warning to pay more attention to information leaving your organization
• 89% of companies suffering credit card breaches were not PCI compliant at the time of the breach, indicating that organizations with rigorous compliance efforts are less likely to be breached
• Only 17% of breaches implicated insiders (down from 31% last year) and 29% had a physical component

A key takeaway is that while the quantity of data breaches quintupled in 2010, the number of compromised records actually dropped.  This data is consistent with the growing belief that attackers are increasingly targeting smaller companies (which tend to have less focus and expertise on IT security) simply because they are easier to exploit.

As the Verizon team points out, in the world of cyber crime, knowledge is power.  Not only do companies require visibility into the  files and data that are being transferred around an in/out of their organization, but they also need the management and enforcement capabilities to control, govern, and protect the growing number of mission-critical and confidential files that are being accessed every day by internal and external systems, applications and people.