United States Reported Less Data Breaches in 2020 but with much more Expensive Successful Hacker Attacks
According to the annual report of the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), 1,108 cyber incidents were reported in 2020 and the number casualties from these incidents was close to 301 million people, a drop of 66% over the previous year.
The social engineering technique of impersonation also helped attackers reap massive profits:
The volume of business fraud and hacking by corporate e-mail systems (BECs) reported to the FBI in 2020 was US$ 1.8 Billion – a figure that reflects half of all cyber damage in monetary terms.
“The trend away from mass data breaches and toward more precise and sophisticated cyberattacks doesn’t mean businesses can relax. Just the opposite. They need to learn whole new ways of protecting their data.”
– James E. Lee, ITRC COO
Read more about Examples and Numbers of Social Engineering Hacker Attacks ›
Save Your Company from Social Engineering Attacks Like that
Register and Get your Personalized Free Exposure Report NOW
and See your where your Company is Exposed to Hackers
Recently Published on our Blog
💰 Free Breach Cost Calculators to Shock Your Board 💰
Understanding the financial impact of a breach is critical for CISOs when communicating risk to executives. Luckily, there are free calculators that estimate breach costs, helping you make your case effectively.
Here are the top free breach cost calculators:
1️⃣ IBM Cost of a Data Breach Calculator – Estimate potential losses based on industry, size, and breach type.
🔗 https://www.ibm.com/security/data-breach
2️⃣ RiskLens Free Calculator – Quantifies cyber risk in financial terms for board presentations.
🔗 https://www.risklens.com/
3️⃣ Cyence Free Risk Calculator – Models the financial impact of cyber incidents on your organization.
🔗 https://www.cynece.com/
4️⃣ BitSight Breach Cost Insights – Estimates breach-related financial exposure using security rating data.
🔗 https://www.bitsight.com/
5️⃣ Ponemon Institute Cost of Breach Tool – Provides benchmarks for breach cost analysis by sector.
🔗 https://www.ponemon.org/
6️⃣ SANS Breach Cost Templates – Free Excel templates for estimating internal and external breach costs.
🔗 https://www.sans.org/white-papers/
7️⃣ AUMINT Breach Simulation Tool – Combines human risk and technical exposure to estimate potential losses.
🔗 https://aumint.io/resources
⚡ Takeaway: These tools help CISOs translate technical vulnerabilities into financial impact, making it easier to secure budget and executive buy-in.
At AUMINT.io, we add another layer – simulating employee-targeted attacks and insider scenarios to quantify human-driven breach risk, giving your board a complete picture.
🔗 Want to show your executives how human factors affect breach costs? Book a free demo
#BreachCost #CISO #CyberSecurity #RiskManagement #AUMINT
Hackers Exploit AI to Manipulate Trust and Breach Organizations
🚨 AI-Powered Emails Are Breaching Employee Trust
😱 Hackers are using AI to craft hyper-realistic emails that trick employees into deploying ScreenConnect malware.
📧 These messages mimic trusted contacts and patterns, bypassing traditional cybersecurity defenses.
⚡ Human vulnerability is now the primary attack vector – technology alone cannot stop these threats.
🔑 Realistic simulations, behavioral analytics, and awareness programs are essential to protect sensitive data.
💡 AUMINT.io’s Trident platform trains employees to detect subtle AI manipulations and respond effectively.
📅 Book your intro session here
to strengthen your human firewall today.
#CISO #CTO #CyberSecurity #SocialEngineering #FraudPrevention #EmployeeTraining
🛡 Free Threat Hunting Playbooks CISOs Love to Reuse 🛡
Proactive threat hunting is key for detecting attacks before they escalate, but building playbooks from scratch is time-consuming. Luckily, several free resources provide tested playbooks CISOs can adapt immediately.
Here are the top free threat hunting playbooks:
1️⃣ MITRE ATT&CK Playbooks – Prebuilt hunting workflows mapped to TTPs.
🔗 https://attack.mitre.org/resources/
2️⃣ SANS Institute Hunt Playbooks – Free guides for Windows, Linux, and cloud environments.
🔗 https://www.sans.org/white-papers/
3️⃣ Elastic Security Labs Playbooks – Open-source examples for SIEM-based hunting.
🔗 https://www.elastic.co/security-labs
4️⃣ Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) Playbooks – Step-by-step threat investigation templates.
🔗 https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/msrc
5️⃣ SOC Prime Threat Hunting Library – Free community-contributed queries and use cases.
🔗 https://socprime.com/community
6️⃣ Red Canary Threat Detection Playbooks – Guides for endpoint and network threat hunting.
🔗 https://redcanary.com/resources/
7️⃣ Aumint.io Sample Playbooks – Our curated templates for simulating social engineering and insider attack scenarios.
🔗 https://aumint.io/resources
⚡ Using these free playbooks, CISOs can standardize threat hunts, reduce response time, and increase detection confidence.
At AUMINT.io, we complement technical hunting with real-world simulations targeting human vulnerabilities, ensuring your SOC detects both technical and behavioral threats.
🔗 Ready to see how your SOC handles advanced threats and employee-targeted attacks? Book a free demo
#ThreatHunting #CISO #CyberSecurity #SOC #AUMINT