Pardon the lack of fanfare that this report deserves, but this serves as an FYI that arguably the most heralded cybersecurity industry report, the Verizon Data Breach Investigation Report, affectionately known as the “DBIR,” was released this morning. According to Verizon, the Verizon Business 2021 Data Breach Investigations Report (2021 DBIR) examines more breaches than ever before. Some of the high-level findings include:

• Increase in phishing and ransomware attacks - along with continued high numbers of Web Application Attacks - underscore a year of unprecedented security challenges
• Report analyzes 29,207 quality incidents, of which 5,258 were confirmed breaches 
• Phishing attacks increased by 11 percent, while attacks using ransomware rose by 6 percent 
• 85 percent of breaches involved a human element, while over 80 percent of breaches were discovered by external parties
• Breach simulations found the median financial impact of a breach is $21,659, with 95 percent of incidents falling between $826 and $653,587

And if you are a history buff, you might enjoy The Record’s review of The rebellious origins of cybersecurity’s wittiest, must read report – I know I (Jennifer Lyn Walker) did!

Check out the DBIR and related resources, including the executive summary at Verizon.