2023 Thales data threat report reveals causes for data security breaches

The annual report from Thales reveals the latest data security threats, trends, and emerging topics based on a survey of nearly 3000 IT and security professionals in 18 countries.

Going digital creates exposure to cyber attacks

Nearly half (47%) of IT professionals surveyed believe that security threats are increasing in volume or severity with 48% reporting an increase in ransomware attacks. More than a third (37%) have experienced a data breach in the past 12 months, including 22% reporting that their organisation had been a victim of a ransomware attack.

Respondents identified their cloud assets as the biggest targets for cyber-attacks. Over a quarter (28%) said SaaS apps and cloud-based storage were the biggest targets, followed by cloud-hosted applications (26%) and cloud infrastructure management (25%). The increase in cloud exploitation and attacks is directly due to the increase in workloads moving to the cloud as 75% of respondents said 40% of data stored in the cloud is now classified as sensitive compared to 49% of respondents in 2022.

These are just a few of the key insights from the 2023 Thales Data Threat Report, conducted by 451 Research, which surveyed both private and public sector organisations. It reveals how businesses are responding and planning their data security strategies and practices in light of a changing threat landscape and the progress they are making to address threats.

Human error and the effects of ransomware

Simple human error, misconfiguration, or other mistakes can accidentally lead to breaches – and respondents identified this as the leading cause of cloud data breaches. For those organisations that have suffered a data breach in the past since 2022, misconfiguration or human error was the primary cause identified by 55% of respondents. This was followed by the exploitation of a known vulnerability (21%), and of a zero day/previously unknown vulnerability (13%). The report finds that identity and access management (IAM) is one of the best defences, with 28% of respondents identifying it as the most effective tool to mitigate these risks.

Meanwhile, the severity of ransomware attacks appears to be declining, with 35% of 2023 respondents reporting that ransomware had a significant impact compared to 44% of respondents reporting similar levels of impact in 2022. Spend is moving in the right direction too, with 61% reporting they would shift or add a budget for ransomware tools to prevent future attacks – up from 57% in 2022 – yet organisational responses to ransomware remain inconsistent. Only 49% of enterprises reported having a formal response ransomware plan, while 67% still report data loss from ransomware attacks.

Addressing the pain points of digital sovereignty

Digital sovereignty is becoming more top of mind for data privacy and security teams. Overall, the report found that data sovereignty remains both a short- and long-term challenge for enterprises. 83% expressed concerns over data sovereignty, and 55% agreed that data privacy and compliance in the cloud has become more difficult, likely due to emergence of requirements around digital sovereignty.

Emerging threats from quantum computers that could attack classical encryption schemes are also a cause for concern for organisations. The report found that Harvest Now, Decrypt Later ('HNDL') and future network decryption were the greatest security concerns from quantum computing – with 62% and 55% reporting concerns respectively. While Post Quantum Cryptography (PQC) has emerged as a discipline to counter these threats, the report found that 62% of organisations have five or more key management systems, presenting a challenge for PQC and crypto agility.

As the executives from Thales say, enterprises continue to see a serious threat landscape. Their findings indicate good progress is being made in certain areas, including MFA adoption and increased use of data encryption. However, there is still a lot of security gaps regarding data visibility. In an increasingly cloud-first world, organisations must maintain better control over their data so they can serve their stakeholders with greater safety and trust. As data sovereignty and protection regulations around the world tighten, security teams will need far more confidence in protecting where their data is being stored and how it is moving and being used.