In her “Top Breaches of 2019”, a security journalist asked if last year would “…be the worst on record?” It looks like 2020 could surpass last year’s breaches, but it’s not entirely due to consequences of the global pandemic. For sure, unprecedented levels of remote working has emboldened hackers to exploit new vulnerabilities, but there’s one very insidious risk that shows up year after year: the silent and unwitting exposure of sensitive data that no one notices… until it’s too late.
Of the top data breaches, most involved server and database exposure, unfortunately too often uncovered by hackers who immediately placed sensitive data for sale on the dark web. It’s a lucrative market that thrives because hackers know that many organizations – especially those that operate in multicloud environments – still don’t know where all their sensitive data resides.