Hacker attacks are increasingly motivated by political andsocial reasons, targeting large organizations with familiar brandnames, and less by financial gain, according to a VerizonCommunications Inc. report.

In 2011, 58 percent of computer data stolen was attributed to“hacktivism,” according to a report on electronic crime releasedtoday by New York-based Verizon. That contrasts with thedata-breach pattern of the past several years, during which themajority of attacks were carried out by criminals whose primarymotivation was financial gain, the report said.

“Electronic crimes are not just about the money anymore,” BryanSartin, Washington, D.C.-based director of investigative responseat Verizon, said in an interview. “That is a major landscapeshift.”

Activist hackers target the world's largest companies, whilefinancial electronic crimes more often target small to mid-sizebusinesses, Sartin said.

In the Netherlands, Royal KPN NV recently had to temporarilyblock the e-mail accounts of about 2 million clients after a hackerbroke into a server domain and confidential information from 539users was put online. Royal Philips Electronics also said a hackergained access to some of its websites.

Verizon's report, which uses data from law enforcement partiesincluding the U.S. Secret Service, the London Metropolitan Policeand a high-tech crime unit of the Netherlands, found 855 databreaches across 174 million stolen records in 2011. That's thesecond-biggest data loss Verizon has seen since it began collectingdata in 2004.

Breaches originated from 36 countries around the globe, anincrease from 22 countries the year prior.

The full Verizon report is here. For a look at the Association for FinancialProfessionals' recent payments fraud survey, see Payments Fraud Still Widespread.

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