The Verizon 2012 Data Breach Investigations Report includes analysis from 855 cybersecurity breaches worldwide that involved 174 million compromised records. More than half -- 58% -- of all data that was compromised last year was the result of politically-motivated attacks rather than those motivated by financial gain.

TIPS:

Verizon said most data breaches could be avoided if network managers followed best practices in information security.

Here are seven tips that Verizon says will help CIOs avoid hactivist-style attacks as well as thwart cybercriminals: