Cyber espionage and ransomware attacks are on the rise, according to Verizon Enterprise Solutions’ latest Data Breach Investigations Report.

About 51% of data breaches involve malware, 61% feature hacking and 81% of hacking-related breaches leverage stolen or weak passwords, it says.

Organised crime groups are behind 51% of breaches.

Verizon’s 10th annual report is based on data from 65 contributing organisations in 84 countries, including Australia.

Financial organisations account for 24% of breaches, followed by health organisations on 15%.

“The triple threat of hacking, malware and social has been on top and trending upward for the past few years, and it does not appear to be going away any time soon,” Verizon says.

“It represents a potent mixture for cyber attacks, but at least it is something we can all agree on.”

There were 998 incidents, with 471 cases of confirmed data disclosure, in the financial sector last year, but Verizon gives no country breakdown.