The major technologies that live online usually gobble up huge amounts of data. This data may not be well protected sometimes. This is something that the people who run the companies that manage this data don’t realize until a data breach has occurred. Many people are not yet familiar with what the term data breach refers to. So, what does it refer to?
What is a Data Breach?
Data Breach refers to an incident that has been confirmed where confidential and sensitive data gets disclosed or accessed in a fashion that is unauthorized. Both small companies and large companies can suffer data breaches. One of the recent 21st-century data breaches happened to the tech giant Facebook. It is estimated that more than 87 million Facebook users were affected by this breach.
Why Data Breaches Can Become Messy
In any typical data breach, sensitive information is stolen. This information may include, the affected person’s name, social security number, date of birth, email address, physical or mailing address, phone numbers, clinical information, bank account information, driving license number, and credit card data. Most of the time, those affected by a data breach may not know it. For example, Facebook realized that data had been harvested back in 2015. However, they did not alert the affected people.
When a cybercriminal gains access to your sensitive information he or she gains the ability to mess with your life. For example, if a shady person has your bank account details and your credit card data, he or she may use this information to sabotage your financial life. The worst part is that you may never realize that it is happening until it has already happened.
