Data breach vs data leak. What are the key differences between the two? Or are they both the same thing? If you are interested in knowing, then let us find out more below.
Data Breach vs Data Leak
What is a data breach? A data breach is when a hacker or a group of hackers gets into your system and steals your data. Most of the time, the data that they usually collect are credit card information, social security numbers, addresses, birth dates, email accounts, and usernames.
Also, most of the time, this data is used to make false accounts in your name or the name of someone close to you. This is done for them to get more money out of it. Because most of the time, they will try to use your credit card in purchasing things online.
They may also try to use your social security number when inquiring about loans or when trying to apply for jobs. And if they get hold of your address then they will send spam emails to sell you some bogus product. Aside from that, they may also try to impersonate you when asking for money from someone else.
Data leak on the other hand is when a website has got hacked by a hacker and you accidentally gave away some personal information about yourself on their website which is public. Or maybe there was some kind of breach in their security system so information about you got leaked out anyway.
Data Breach vs Data Leak Are Not the Same
Data breach vs data leak are two different things but there are certain similarities between the two. The main thing that they have in common is that both are not good at all. Why? Because both are very harmful to your privacy and they can lead to identity theft which can cause you a lot of problems that can be hard to deal with later on in life.
So, if you want it or not, you have got to make sure that these two things will not happen again while you are browsing on the internet or while using any public computer or terminal out there among other things.
When you look at it closely, both data breaches vs data leaks are different from each other, especially on how they affect us as people who are using the internet daily. When it comes to the data breach, you will know that this would affect almost everyone out there since most people who are using the internet are vulnerable to this kind of attack.
On the other hand, we have data leak which is more targeted and specific compared to what we call a data breach which affects anyone and everyone who uses the internet.
Conclusion
As you can see, data breach vs data leak is different from each other. One is more detrimental than the other. And if you do not know, then you need to learn about the two so that you will know how to deal with them.
