As digital security through online portals continually improves and people become more wary of phishing emails, hackers have turned to old fashioned telephone calls to elicit key pieces of personal information they can use for profit. It takes little technical skill—just the ability to sound convincing to vulnerable people over the phone.

The volume and profile of data breaches are not only growing — they’re accelerating. In just one year, from 2018 to 2019, reported breaches jumped 54 percent. The first half of 2019 alone saw more than 4.1 billion compromised records due to hackers and poor security practices.