How Does a Data Breach Occur?
A data breach is a cyber attack that results in unauthorized access to confidential or sensitive information. This can include customer data, business intelligence, financial data, medical records or national security matters. Breaches occur across all industries and geographies, with consequences including financial loss, regulatory penalties, lawsuits and long-term brand damage.
In the wake of a breach, organizations must invest significant time and money to investigate and remediate, compensate customers, and improve their cybersecurity infrastructure. These costs, as well as the reputational damage that follows, can have a lasting impact on sales and growth.
Identifying and mitigating risks after a breach requires an understanding of how the attackers gained access to the sensitive data. The following are some of the common ways a data breach occurs:
Physical point-of-sale attacks – These attacks involve stealing credit card, debit cards and other payment device information through skimming devices or phishing.
Lost or stolen credentials – The easiest way for an attacker to view private online information is by logging in with someone else’s login credentials. These can be used for a variety of malicious purposes including account takeovers and credential stuffing.
Misconfigured systems and web servers – When websites, applications and servers are not configured securely, confidential or personal data is exposed to anyone on the Internet. This can be done through lack of SSL/TLS encryption, or a misconfigured web server that allows attackers to intercept transmissions and see sensitive information in plaintext.