Visual Hacking

Visual Hacking: A Bigger Threat Than Security Professionals Might think

Ponemon’s 2016 Global Visual Hacking Experiment found it takes less than 15 minutes to complete an initial hack by actually eyeballing certain types of information and such attempts were successful 91 percent of the time.

Jessica Davis | August 11, 2016

Ninety-one percent of visual hacking attempts are successful, the attacks happen very quickly, and it can be nearly impossible to detect when someone steals a glimpse at protected health information and leaves a hospital,  according to the 2016 Global Visual Hacking Experiment conducted by Ponemon Institute.
Visual hacking, which is physically spying on someone’s desk and computer screens, happens quickly. It takes less than 15 minutes to complete the initial hack in 49 percent of hacking attempts. And in 88 percent of U.S. trials, an undercover white hat hacker was able to visually hack information.

Combined average highlights from the 2015 U.S. Visual Hacking study and the 2016 Global Visual Hacking study revealed the following:

1. Visual hacking is a global problem. Visual hacking occurred in all countries where the experiment was conducted, with 91 percent of attempts being successful.

2. Employee computer screens are most at risk for visual hacking. Globally, 52 percent of sensitive information was visually hacked from employee computer screens.

3. A company’s most sensitive information is at risk. Of the visually hacked data, 27 percent was considered sensitive information, including login credentials, attorney-client privileged documents, confidential or classified documents, and financial information. The information was deemed to be sensitive because of the potential security risk to the organization in the aftermath of a data-breach incident.

4. Visual hacking happens quickly. It took less than 15 minutes to complete the first visual hack in 49 percent of the hacking attempts. [...continues...]

 Source: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160810005218/en/

Source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/global-study-reveals-majority-visual-140000439.html

[Click to Enlarge] Source: http://cargocollective.com/kctruth/3M-Privacy-Filters-Visual-Hacking

<more at http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/visual-hacking-bigger-threat-security-professionals-might-think; related articles and links: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/global-study-reveals-majority-visual-140000439.html (New Global Study Reveals Majority of Visual Hacking Attempts Are Successful. Experiments conducted in eight countries reveal high risk of low-tech hacking methods. August 10, 2016) and http://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/visual-hacking-is-successful-91-of/ (Visual Hacking is Successful 91% of the Time. August 9, 2016)>