back to article Hackers aren't so interested in your credit card data these days. That's bad news

Healthcare and government have overtaken the retail sector as most-targeted for data breaches, according to security firm Gemalto. A total of 1,673 data breaches led to 707 million data records being compromised worldwide during 2015, according to the latest edition of Gemalto’s Breach Level Index report. Not all breaches are …

  1. Vimes

    Would this be the same Gemalto that was itself breached by GCHQ?

    https://theintercept.com/2015/02/19/great-sim-heist/

  2. Disk0
    Black Helicopters

    Log on and deliver...

    ...your money or your life...

    Soon enough the crooks will be after our DNA as well, to replicate the world's population as a more docile and productive variety, replacing us all one by one with what they affectionately refer to as "Pod People"...

    1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

      Re: "Pod People"

      As far as hackers are concerned, I'm pretty sure they already consider most of us to be beneath even Pod people. For them we are just numbers on a screen, numbers they can take and use as they please.

      The odds of catching them are vanishingly small, their odds of profit are vastly superior to robbing a bank or attacking an armoured transport, and, if caught, the sentences they face are laughably short.

      The only good news I take away is that, after a long period of suffering, we might end up with better international cooperation to take down the scum that steal identities, better protections in place to prevent ID theft in the first place, and a global economy that is more stable and robust thanks to global encryption.

      Sorry, NSA & Co., but your worldview is going to be proven wrong by the very tool you abuse for your surveillance abilities. That little irony is the only solace we can get at the moment.

    2. Alumoi Silver badge

      Re: Log on and deliver...

      iPod, damn it! It's "iPod People"!

  3. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
    Joke

    Maybe I should get myself ...

    a couple of spare identities, just in case the original one gets stolen.

    Albert Spangler sounds good

    1. John G Imrie

      Re: Albert Spangler

      Albert Spangler, is dead, I had an excellent view of the hanging.

      1. BebopWeBop

        Re: Albert Spangler

        Crumbs, you get all sorts on this site - Hello Mr Trooper

        1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

          Re: Albert Spangler

          Go and get me Mr Robinson's box.

    2. Robert Helpmann??
      Childcatcher

      Re: Maybe I should get myself ...

      ...a couple of spare identities...

      Been up playing a marathon game of Paranoia?

  4. nilfs2
    Headmaster

    Greed, cheapskates, beancounters and lazy people...

    ...are the reasons why hackers are doing as they please, I have no sympathy for most people being hacked, usually the hack happens because of a stupid security vulnerability, not having proper gear to protect the data, or just for plain stupidity.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Meh

      Re: Greed, cheapskates, beancounters and lazy people...

      I think is it more due to misplaced incentives than any of the above. At present, it is pretty much:

      The corporation holding your data gets hacked -> You suffer

      The world would be a much safer place if there was a proper incentive to look after your data:

      The corporation holding your data gets hacked -> The corporation suffers

  5. Cynic_999

    So a whopping 2% of data thefts - that's 1 in 50 - are perpetrated by governments. Think about that - and also consider that the figure applies only to data that was taken surreptitiously because the figure will not include data that was openly seized following a court Order or similar.

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like