A good starting point for non-IT executives and managers to understand what hackers are really up to is the Verizon Data Breach Investigation Report (DBIR). This yearly summary of security incidents and breaches has become the go-to resource for the industry. In their 2021 report, some of the major long-term trends are still evident: over 80% of breaches are still conducted by external actors and their overwhelming motive is, as always, financial. As in past years, hacking is at the top of threat actions-that is, where a “black hat” is cleverly finding and taking advantage of vulnerabilities to break into systems.
