Data breaches are one of the biggest cyber threats any organization could encounter, especially since most of them keep records of their customers’ sensitive data. In fact, 2021 saw 4,145 publicly disclosed cases of data breaches, resulting in over 22 billion records being exposed. And the year before that, 2020, had a record-breaking level of 37.2 billion records breached. But what is a data breach?
A data breach is an unlawful disclosure of protected data that poses a risk to the security, confidentiality, or integrity of the information that is stored in a system. This security incident usually involves accessing, modifying, or deleting data in an unauthorized manner. Usual targets are e-mails, computers, laptops, servers, and mobile phones.
There are several ways a data breach can occur. Here is a visual guide on responding to data breaches.
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