NEW YORK — While Target’s massive data breach last year caused consumers to panic and drew attention to Internet crime, a new study finds that breaches on retailer payment systems are less common than other kinds of attacks.
More than twice as many of last year’s Internet data breaches resulted from various small online acts, such as people clicking on malicious Web links and choosing easy-to-guess passwords, according to a worldwide report from Verizon.
The report, considered to be one of the top annual looks at Internet-related crime, includes information from 50 organizations ranging from law enforcement to security companies. The report was due out Wednesday.
Target Corp.’s breach, one of the largest in history, resulted in the thefts of 40 million credit and debit card numbers, along with the personal information of up to 70 million people. Other companies including fellow retailers Neiman Marcus and Michaels Stores Inc. later announced similar breaches.
But while such large-scale attacks grab headlines, the number of breaches of payment systems has fallen in recent years. In 2013, there were just 198 recorded breaches of payment systems, representing 14 percent of the year’s 1,367 confirmed data breaches. By comparison, data breaches through attacks on Web applications accounted for 490, or 35 percent, and cases of online espionage covered 306 attacks, or 22 percent.
Wade Baker, Verizon’s managing principal of research and intelligence, said researchers saw a big increase in attacks on smaller retailers a few years ago.
‘‘It’s very industrialized and very sophisticated,’’ he said. ‘‘You can buy software packages that are customized. It’s never been easier to turn data into money.’’