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Data Breach is an incident where sensitive information is exposed due to a cyberattack. It is a highly damaging cybersecurity incident that can have long-term impacts on a company’s reputation with its customers, clients and employees. It can also lead to costly fines and legal implications if a company is subject to increasingly stringent regulations like the European Union’s GDPR or California’s Consumer Privacy Act.

Malicious outsiders who steal data for financial gain or other malicious reasons are the most common cause of a breach. They can be lone hackers or part of an organized crime ring. They often target large amounts of personal information to sell or use for identity theft, such as bank accounts, credit card information, social security numbers, birth dates and home addresses.

Internal threats can also be a factor. Employees, especially angry or laid-off workers, can leak data to damage the company or a competitor. A malicious insider can access confidential information or passwords to a client list and sell it to a hacker, or steal business-critical data such as source code, merger and acquisition files and IT documents.

A company that suffers a breach must notify affected individuals and often the media to protect them from further damage. It may also be required to change its systems and practices to prevent further incidents. The severity of the damage depends on how much data was compromised, whether it is encrypted and whether it is electronic or paper records.