How serious is a data breach? What should you do when this happens to your organization? What steps do you need to take when this occurs? Take a look below to know.
How Serious Is a Data Breach?
A data breach is an event that compromises the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of an organization’s information. A data breach may consist of a single system being compromised or multiple systems in a single attack.
To determine how serious a data breach is, you need to be able to pinpoint the extent of the attack. For instance, what kind of information was compromised? Did the attacker gain access to confidential information? Did he gain access to confidential and personal information?
If all the company’s data is compromised, then it can be considered a serious data breach. On the other hand, if only one system is compromised, then it can be considered a minor issue. However, if an attacker may use this unauthorized access to gain access to confidential and personal information, then it can be deemed as a serious security incident.
An incident is assessed according to its severity and the extent to which the organization’s assets are damaged. The fact that your information was compromised does not necessarily mean that you do not have control over your assets.
For instance, if there is unauthorized access to your network but no damage was done, then it could just be an exploratory attack. However, if there were changes made to your network or any other device in your network that were not authorized by your company or by you personally, then this could be considered a serious data breach.
According to the law, if any company fails in protecting its customers’ or clients’ personal information and such information gets accessed by third parties, then they will be held liable for the consequences. If the company could not prevent such data theft from occurring in their system, they will likewise be held liable.
What to Do When A Data Breach Happens
When a data breach happens, you will need to take the following actions. It is always best to take preventive measures than to deal with the aftermath of such a security incident. It is much easier to prevent such data breaches than to clean up after them. By doing so, you will be able to minimize the damage caused by such incidents and the impact on your company’s reputation.
It is always best if you can prepare in advance and create a plan in case an attack happens. This way, you will be able to immediately address the issue and control the damage before it gets out of hand. If you do not have a plan in place, it could be very challenging for you to handle such an incident.
Conclusion
So, if you want to avoid being one of the companies that had a data breach, then you need to be proactive in taking steps to prevent such a security incident from happening. You could start by creating a plan that will help you address the problem.
