Study: Records breached during 2011 reach all-time high

Last year may have been a difficult year for the global economy, but hackers worldwide, on the other hand, enjoyed much success, according to a recent study conducted by Risk Based Security. Overall, cybercriminals participating in online security breaches exposed 368 million records, marking an all-time high and surpassing the previous record of 191 million targeted in 2009.

Also, four incidents from last year made the top 10 list of most significant breaches of all-time. Of the security events studied, nearly 87 percent took place from an external source and 33 percent of all incidents measured were caused by hackers, who were also responsible for 83 percent of all files obtained.

Stolen laptops used to be No. 1 for the proliferation of security incidents, but hackers have taken over the top spot, the report found.

According to the company, what is even more disturbing is that 33 percent of companies involved in online security incidents did not know how many records were stolen.

"This latest information and research conducted by Risk Based Security suggests that organizations in all industries need to take note that they face a very real threat from security breaches," the vendor said. "Whether it is the constantly increasing security threats, ever-evolving IT technologies, or limited security resources, data breaches and the costs related to response and mitigation are escalating quickly."

To defend against cyebrcriminals, the global security services market is expected to expand in the near future. According to a study by market research firm Gartner, worldwide spending for such solutions surpassed $35 billion in 2011 and is projected to exceed $38 billion this year. By 2015, the industry will top $49 billion.

North America is the region that will continue to spend the most for security solutions. According to the research firm, spending in the region is expected to grow from $14.6 billion in 2012 to $19 billion in 2015. Western Europe will remain No. 2, with budgets expanding from nearly $12 billion this year to more than $14 billion by 2015.

"The security services market has changed rapidly over the last several years with a growing number of security technology providers offering their technologies as services, and customers often preferring services to save on operational costs while they consolidate resources to more strategic security related initiatives," said Gartner research director Lawrence Pingree.