December 7, 2023
UPDATE
Report: 2.6 billion private information compromised by knowledge breaches in previous two years — underscoring want for finish‑to‑finish encryption
An Apple-commissioned research reveals that threats to client knowledge saved within the cloud have grown dramatically because the final report was revealed in December 2022
At the moment Apple revealed an impartial research carried out by Massachusetts Institute of Know-how professor Dr. Stuart Madnick that discovered clear and compelling proof that knowledge breaches have grow to be an epidemic, threatening delicate and private client knowledge the world over. The overall variety of knowledge breaches greater than tripled between 2013 and 2022 — exposing 2.6 billion private information up to now two years alone — and has continued to worsen in 2023. The findings underscore that sturdy protections in opposition to knowledge breaches within the cloud, like end-to-end encryption, have solely grown extra important since final yr’s report and the launch of Superior Knowledge Safety for iCloud.
This yr’s research, “The Continued Risk to Private Knowledge: Key Elements Behind the 2023 Enhance,” demonstrates threats that had already reached historic ranges — as proven in final yr’s report, “The Rising Risk to Client Knowledge within the Cloud” — proceed to rise. More and more, corporations throughout the know-how business are addressing these threats by implementing end-to-end encryption, as Apple did with final yr’s launch of Superior Knowledge Safety for iCloud.
With Superior Knowledge Safety for iCloud, which makes use of end-to-end encryption to offer Apple’s highest stage of cloud knowledge safety, customers have the selection to additional defend necessary iCloud knowledge even within the case of a knowledge breach. iCloud already protects 14 delicate knowledge classes utilizing end-to-end encryption by default, together with passwords in iCloud Keychain and Well being knowledge. For customers who allow Superior Knowledge Safety for iCloud, the overall variety of knowledge classes protected utilizing end-to-end encryption rises to 23, together with iCloud Backup, Notes, and Photographs.
“Dangerous actors proceed to pour huge quantities of time and assets into discovering extra artistic and efficient methods to steal client knowledge, and we received’t relaxation in our efforts to cease them,” mentioned Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vp of Software program Engineering. “As threats to client knowledge develop, we’ll maintain discovering methods to battle again on behalf of our customers by including much more highly effective protections.”
As proven on this yr’s report, the growing digitalization of customers’ private {and professional} lives has fueled a dramatic rise in knowledge breaches. Annually, hundreds of information breaches expose the private data of tons of of thousands and thousands of shoppers. Hackers are evolving their strategies and discovering extra methods to defeat safety practices that when held them again. Consequently, even organizations with the strongest attainable safety practices are susceptible to threats in a method that wasn’t true just some years in the past.
The report additionally reveals that even when shoppers take all the proper steps to safe their delicate knowledge, it’s nonetheless susceptible to being compromised by hackers if it’s saved in a readable type by organizations they entrust it with. As an example, when trying to infiltrate corporations with sturdy safety practices, hackers usually begin by concentrating on a distinct group with comparatively weak safety that has a technical enterprise relationship with the final word goal. They then steal credentials or data that helps them goal staff or techniques on the group that’s their major goal.
As threats to person knowledge proceed to develop extra frequent and complex, Apple’s lengthy observe file of engineering highly effective and modern options make its merchandise essentially the most safe in the marketplace. With Lockdown Mode, Apple developed a safety for many who could also be focused by excessive threats like mercenary spyware and adware due to who they’re or what they do. Apple’s Superior Knowledge Safety for iCloud is one other function the corporate has developed to guard customers in opposition to rising threats to their knowledge, maintaining most person knowledge in iCloud protected even within the case of a knowledge breach within the cloud.
The report illustrates that the historic threats to person knowledge that noticed the variety of knowledge breaches almost triple between 2013 and 2022, compromising 2.6 billion information over the course of two years, are solely getting worse in 2023. Within the U.S. alone, there have been almost 20 p.c extra breaches in simply the primary 9 months of 2023 than in any prior yr. The goal for cybercriminals was very clear, with a 2023 survey discovering that over 80 p.c of breaches concerned knowledge saved within the cloud. That is after assaults concentrating on cloud infrastructure almost doubled from 2021 to 2022.
That is due partially to the elevated concentrating on of client knowledge by ransomware gangs and coordinated campaigns that compromised distributors or their merchandise to focus on clients. The specter of ransomware has solely grown in 2023, as proven by the actual fact that there have been almost 70 p.c extra assaults reported by September 2023 than within the first three quarters of 2022. The truth is, consultants discovered that there have been extra ransomware assaults by September 2023 than in all of 2022 mixed. This has led to alarming developments within the U.S. and overseas, with greater than double the accounts getting breached within the first half of 2023 in comparison with the primary half of 2022 within the U.Okay., Australia, and Canada mixed.
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Scott Radcliffe
Apple
Apple Media Helpline
