- Ransomware keeps rising. Ransomware attacks were over four times higher in 2016 than in 2015. The ease and effectiveness of these attacks portend an even larger increase in 2017 with Beazley projecting these attacks to double again in 2017.

- Unintended disclosure is a real problem. The proliferation of criminals looking to profit from confidential information has made formerly minor mistakes much more dangerous. Unintended disclosure, most often emails or faxes sent to the wrong recipient, increased to 32 percent of all breaches in 2016, up from 24 percent in 2015.

- Financial institutions see more hacking attacks. Hacks and malware accounted for 40 percent of financial institution data breaches in 2016, up from 27 percent in 2015. Unintended disclosure – mainly caused by misdirected emails – also was up, rising to 28 percent of breaches in 2016 from 24 percent in 2015.

- Higher education hacks are increasing. Hacks and malware accounted for nearly half of higher education data breaches in 2016 (45 percent), up from 35 percent of breaches in 2015. Unintended disclosures caused 28 percent of breaches in 2016, up from 22 percent in 2015.

- Healthcare mixups drive breach exposures. Unintended disclosure – misdirected faxes and emails or the improper release of discharge papers – led to 40 percent of breaches in the healthcare industry in 2016, up from 30 percent in 2015. In a sign that the industry might be improving defenses, hacks and malware accounted for only 19 percent of breaches in 2016, down from 27 percent in 2015.

Katherine Keefe, global head of BBR Services, said: “The threat from ransomware is not only growing, but evolving to allow hackers to target vulnerable organizations and their most valuable data files and adjust ransom demands accordingly. The sustained increase in these threats in 2016 indicates that even more organizations will be attacked in 2017 and need to have incident response plans in place before they get a ransomware demand.”

Learn more: www.beazley.com.