Data breaches caused by social engineering attacks, or scams involving deception, increased nine-fold in the third quarter of 2017, according to Beazley's Breach Insights report.
For their report, the specialist insurer collected responses from its clients, which represent a variety of industries. During the first nine months of 2017, Beazley's Breach Response Services managed 2,013 incidents on behalf of clients, up from 1,943 incidents throughout the entire fiscal year 2016.
Here are three things to know.
1. Healthcare accounted for 41 percent of the total number of breaches reported to Beazley. Of those breaches, more than 38 percent were caused by unintended disclosure.
2. In healthcare, 19 percent of breaches were caused by hacking or malware and 15 percent were caused by insiders.
3. Social engineering breaches by industry sector reported to Beazley in the first nine months of 2017:
- Professional service firms (18 percent)
- Financial institutions (9 percent)
- Higher education (9 percent)
- Healthcare organizations (3 percent)
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