With the constant rise in reports of data breaches affecting every sector of business, it’s not surprising that regulators are urging companies to take the approach of “not if, but when” when assessing their risk. And the more information that’s out there about the who, why and how of breaches, the better prepared companies will be to protect themselves.

To that end, the 2013 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report was released last month, revealing some surprising, and not-so-surprising results that companies can use to shore up their defenses. It looks like awareness is growing, and as the stakes get higher with new laws and higher penalties for breaches, companies are taking the threat seriously. In fact, the report revealed that “a growing segment of the security community adopted an ‘assume you’re breached’ mentality.”

All in all, the information security landscape in 2012 revealed that breaches are a multi-faceted problem, says the report, and any one-dimensional attempt to describe them fails to adequately capture their complexity.

Note: Some figures in the infographic add up to more than 100 per cent, resulting from the fact that several answers could sometimes apply to a given incident.