Rise in successful state-sponsored cyber attacks seen in the first six months of 2015

From Continuity Central.com –

“Gemalto has released the findings of its Breach Level Index for the first six months of 2015, revealing that 888 data breaches occurred, compromising 246 million records worldwide.

Compared to the first half of 2014, data breaches increased by 10 percent while the number of compromised data records declined by 41 percent during the first six months of this year. This decline in compromised records can most likely be attributed to that fact that fewer large scale mega breaches have occurred in the retail industry compared to the same period last year.

Despite the decrease in the number of compromised records, large data breaches continued to expose massive amounts of personal information and identities. The largest breach in the first half of 2015 – which scored a 10 in terms of severity on the Breach Level Index – was an identity theft attack on Anthem Insurance that exposed 78.8 million records, representing almost a third (32 percent) of the total data records stolen in the first six months of 2015. Other notable breaches during this analysis period included a 21-million-record breach at the US Office of Personnel Management (BLI: 9.7); a 50-million-record breach at Turkey’s General Directorate of Population and Citizenship Affairs (BLI: 9.3); and a 20-million-record breach at Russia’s Topface (BLI: 9.2). In fact, the top 10 breaches accounted for 81.4 percent of all compromised records.”

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The new art of war: How trolls, hackers and spies are rewriting the rules of conflict

From Tech Republic –

“Cyberwar isn't going to be about hacking power stations. It's going to be far more subtle, and more dangerous.

Wandering the pretty, medieval streets of Tallinn's old town, it is hard to believe that the tiny country of Estonia has anything at all to do with cyberwarfare. But first as victim of an attack and now as home to some of the leading thinkers on how the digital battlefield will develop, the country has played a key role in its emergence and evolution.

Estonia is a country of around 1.3 million people, facing the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Finland, it borders Latvia to the south and Russia to the east. After decades as part of the Soviet Union, it regained independence in 1991.

Even today reminders of the Soviet times still abound in the capital Tallinn. There's a museum in one of the big downtown hotels showing how the KGB would bug the rooms of foreign guests.”

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Conversation: The Challenges of Combating Cyber Espionage

From Stratfor –

Stratfor Vice President of Intelligence Fred Burton and Analyst Tristan Reed discuss cyber espionage and the state actors involved.

For more analysis, visit: http://www.Stratfor.com