What is a Data Breach?
A data breach,otherwise known as data spill or data leak is a security incident in which the attackers(an individual, group, or software system) obtain unauthorized access and retrieval of sensitive or confidential information.
These include credit card details, trade secrets, medical records, Social Security numbers, financial information or personally identifiable information (PII).
They are particularly outrageous in industries like Health care and financial services where these can lead to legal penalties and payouts.
Last year, a collection of zero-day vulnerabilities known as ProxyLogon were leveraged to compromise Microsoft Exchange servers, resulting in one of the most destructive data breaches ever.
Here is the summary of findings by a Tech giant based on the number of data breach incidents took place last year.
Causes For Data Breach
Data breaches can happen in a variety of ways.Cyber criminals obtain access to the data and utilise it for illegal purposes.Some of the potential causes for a data breach include:
- Weak login credentials
- Malware or ransomware
- Phishing
- Social engineering fraud to obtain money directly
- Lost or stolen hardware (laptops, hard drives, mobile devices)
- Insider threats by employees who have access to an organization’s physical or digital information
The spike in data breaches reported by organizations around the world has brought the subject of cybersecurity and data privacy to the forefront, prompting several regulatory authorities to make new laws to tackle it.
