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Frequency
2,792 incidents, 537 with confirmed data disclosure
Top patterns
System Intrusion, Miscellaneous Errors and Basic Web Application Attacks represent 81% of breaches
Threat actors
External (78%), Internal (22%) (breaches)
Actor motives
Financial (80%), Espionage (18%), Ideology (1%), Grudge (1%) (breaches)
Data compromised
Personal (46%), Credentials (34%), Other (28%), Internal (28%) (breaches)
Top IG1 protective controls
Security Awareness and Skills Training (CSC 14), Access Control Management (CSC 6), Account Management (CSC 5)
What is the same?
Miscellaneous Errors remain in the top three patterns in the same place as last year.
Summary
The System Intrusion pattern is the newest big dog to arrive on the scene in this sector. Employees continue to be a cause of breaches in this vertical, although Internal actors are seven times more likely to make a mistake than to commit a malicious act that causes a breach.
Public Administration
NAICS 92
- 2022 DBIR
- Master Guide
- Introduction
- Summary of Findings
- Results and Analysis Intro
- Results and Analysis - Intro to Patterns
- Results and Analysis - Not the Human Element
- Results and Analysis - Basic Web Application Attacks
- Industries
- Intro to Industries
- Accommodation and Food Services Data Breaches
- Arts and Entertainment Data Breaches
- Data Breaches in Education
- Financial Services Data Security Breaches
- Healthcare Data Breaches
- Information Industry Data Breaches
- Data Breaches in Manufacturing Industries
- Data Breaches in Energy & Utilities Industries
- Professional Services Data Breaches
- Public Administration Data Breaches
- Retail Data Breaches and Security
- Small Business Data Breach Statistics
- Intro to Regions
- Wrap Up
- Appendices
- Corrections
- Download the full report (PDF)
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Patterns
5-Year difference
3-Year difference
Basic Web Application Attacks
No change
Greater
Miscellaneous Errors
No change
Less
System Intrusion
Greater
Greater
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Pattern
Difference with peers
System Intrusion
Greater
Miscellaneous Errors
No change
Basic Web Application Attacks
Less
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Here and now
The System Intrusion pattern has drop-kicked the Social Engineering pattern right out of the “top three” club. This was quite the coup, considering the Social Engineering pattern was in the top spot last year. In part, this may be attributed to some prominent and far-reaching supply chain breaches that came to light last year.
As the Social Engineering pattern fell, the Basic Web Application Attacks stepped in to fill the vacuum. Miscellaneous Errors remained in the middle spot, with the trio of Misconfiguration, Misdelivery and Loss nearly tied for what caused the most error-based breaches in this sector.
The occurrence of errors in this industry accounts for the prevalence of breaches caused by the Internal actor. While there was a smattering of Misuse breaches in this sector, internal actors are about seven times more likely to make a mistake that causes a breach than they are to do something malicious.
We have said before how popular Credentials are as a data type to be raided. However, this year’s data showed a drop from 2021’s report, when it was 80% in this industry. Personal was only 18% last year, but has now catapulted into the top spot.
Step into my raggedy DeLorean
In honor of our 15-year anniversary, we wanted to take a look back in time at what has changed in this sector. Just three years ago, the top motive was Espionage, at 66% of breaches. Five years ago, it was 64%, which illustrates that it has been a persistent challenge for Government entities. This makes sense, when you consider that regardless of which Government entity we are talking about, someone wants to know what they’re up to. Speaking of malicious—we found that the Espionage motive is up from 4% from last year to 18% this year. Internal breaches also increased from last year, and we have the motive of Grudge popping up in our list for a change.
Figure 101 illustrates the change in the Espionage-motivated actors in this industry since 2017. As you can see, when the Espionage motive fell, the Financially-motivated attacks rose. It appears that the Public Administration sector has joined the rest of us in being targeted by criminals looking to make a buck. Welcome to the party, pal!27
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27 Admit it, you read this in John McClane’s voice.
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