Verizon 2023 Data Breach Investigations Report

The 2023 DBIR examines 16,312 incidents (5,199 confirmed breaches) from Nov 1, 2021 to Oct 31, 2022 and presents cross-cutting findings: ransomware remains a dominant action (≈24% of breaches) while stolen credentials, phishing/pretexting (BEC) and exploitation of vulnerabilities (notably Log4j and other zero-days) are the primary initial access vectors; organized crime drives most financially motivated breaches, APTs contribute espionage and zero-day exploitation, and impacts vary by industry and region. The report maps VERIS to MITRE ATT&CK, recommends CIS controls (patching, MFA, data recovery, account management, awareness) and emphasizes fundamentals (credential protection, timely patching, backups and incident response) to reduce risk.