Glossary Security

Data breach

A data breach is an incident in which personal or confidential data is accessed, disclosed or lost without authorisation.

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In more detail

Causes include hacking, stolen credentials, misconfigured storage, lost devices and insider mistakes. Many privacy laws require affected organisations to notify regulators and people within a set time. If your details are exposed, change the password anywhere you reused it, turn on Multi-factor authentication (MFA) and watch for Phishing that uses the leaked data.

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See also

  • Glossary Multi-factor authentication (MFA)
    Multi-factor authentication (MFA) requires two or more kinds of proof to sign in.
  • Glossary Phishing
    Phishing is a scam in which attackers pose as a trusted organisation or person, usually by email or text.
  • Glossary Vulnerability
    A vulnerability is a weakness in software, hardware or a process that an attacker could exploit to do something unintended.
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