Verizon Releases 2020 Cyber Espionage Report

Verizon recently released the 2020 Cyber Espionage Report (CER), their first-ever data-driven publication on advanced cyberattacks.   

The report draws from seven years of Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) content, and more than 14 years of Verizon Threat Research Advisory Center (VTRAC) Cyber-Espionage data breach response expertise. The CER serves as a guide for cybersecurity professionals looking to bolster their organization’s cyber defense and posture and incident response (IR) capabilities against cyberattacks.     

Key findings from the 2020 CER include:  

  • INDUSTRIES: Public (31%), Manufacturing (22%) and Professional (11%) were most common. Manufacturing (35%), Mining + Utilities (23%) and Public (23%) were most common by percent within breaches. 
  • TIMELINES: Time to Compromise was seconds to days (91%), Time to Exfiltration was minutes to weeks (88%), Time to Discovery was months to years (69%) and Time to Containment was days to months (79%). 
  • ACTORS: For Cyber-Espionage breaches, top Actor varieties were State affiliated (85%), Nation-state (8%) and Organized crime (4%). 

You can view the complete report here.

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