Apple Report Finds Steep Increase in Data Breaches, Ransomware (axios.com) 12
Data breaches and ransomware attacks are getting worse. Some 2.6 billion personal records have been exposed in data breaches over the past two years and that number continues to grow, according to a new report commissioned by Apple. From a report: Apple says the escalating intrusions, combined with increases in ransomware means the tech industry needs to move toward greater use of encryption. According to the report, prepared by MIT professor emeritus Stuart E. Madnick:
1. Data breaches in the US through the first nine months of the year are already 20% higher than for all of 2022.
2. Nearly 70 percent more ransomware attacks were reported through September 2023, than in the first three quarters of 2022.
3. Americans and those in the UK topped the list of those most targeted in ransomware attacks in 2023, followed by Canada and Australia. Those four countries accounted for nearly 70% of reported ransomware attacks.
4. One in four people in the US had their health data exposed in a data breach during the first nine months of 2023.
1. Data breaches in the US through the first nine months of the year are already 20% higher than for all of 2022.
2. Nearly 70 percent more ransomware attacks were reported through September 2023, than in the first three quarters of 2022.
3. Americans and those in the UK topped the list of those most targeted in ransomware attacks in 2023, followed by Canada and Australia. Those four countries accounted for nearly 70% of reported ransomware attacks.
4. One in four people in the US had their health data exposed in a data breach during the first nine months of 2023.
Re: (Score:1)
Their stuff does come more secure out of the box. Compared to Windows or Android which are ad platforms mainly, operating systems second. No, Apple isn't 100% secure, but for the average Joe, it takes a lot less work to keep ransomware off a Mac than it does a PC, and there are quite obvious safeguards with macOS that are not in Windows.
The problem is that Macs need a better backup program. Something like CloudBerry or something that can not just back up to an external drive or NAS, but to a cloud provid
Re: (Score:2)
I keep waiting for the day that they drop their "Time Machine in iCloud" announcement
Re: (Score:2)
I'm surprised this hasn't been done yet. It is something simple. If iCloud had better snapshotting, similar to Dropbox's rewind system (which fared quite well when I did a "ransomware" test by using xz to go compress files, and any file compressed with that was considered encrypted), it would be a lot more useful. Even better would be a S3 system where buckets could be used for long term storage, archiving, and backups. To keep users from filling stuff up with object locks, there might be an option to r
Re: (Score:2)
Overall, I have never seen Apple really pushing fear. I've seen this in AV programs, I've seen this in other items, but at most, Apple mentions that their security isn't bad, which can be construed as what the parent means, but it isn't an overt "buy this or be compromised".
Apple is lucky. Because they control the entire stack, they can keep their attack surface small in hardware and software, and at all levels. For example, UEFI attacks don't matter with Apple Silicon due to it only being Apple's baby,
move toward greater use of encryption (Score:2)
#4 makes me mad! (Score:4, Informative)
In Ontario, Canada, we don't take the most basic / elementary precautions into account when handling health data. My partner is a nurse, and her work notebook is packed full of unencrypted health data, and if not electronic, it's literally on paper. Health care records aren't required to be encrypted or protected in transit, in storage, or in use. If someone at a doctor's office, hospital, or clinic faxes (which is still a thing) your health care records, it will sit on a fax machines waiting for everyone who walks by, to read it. If those people email it, you better hope the email server provider doesn't take a look, because that data is unencrypted, and if you ask them to encrypt it, they will say no.
If you involve the Privacy Commissioner, they'll go on about how fax is safer and more secure than email, because of a policy written in 2006. If your health records get sent to the wrong place, well that's on you (seriously), not the person, or group who sent them. If a doctor's office shuts down, and they don't give you the files, and don't forward or return them, they might be destroyed, or thrown into the garbage as printed records. If they weren't printed, they'll probably be sitting on an unencrypted hard drive. If the records were destroyed, you have no recourse, and in one case I found my records in a pile of other people's records, sitting on the floor in a construction zone, having been dumped from a shelf.
When health care data is getting exposed, no one should be surprised. It's intentionally by design of the total lack of care anyone gives to sensitive data.
5 Eyes (Score:2)
State sponsored ?