Causes of Data Breaches

Data Breaches

Almost every other day you watch news channels reporting a data breaching incident in some significantly prestigious organization.

A data breach basically refers to an exposure of any sensitive or confidential data to an unauthorized person that was meant to be securely protected. Many notable eminent organizations who have suffered this unethical tragic event are still reeling from the fact of their important personal assets being exposed. But data breaches are somewhat side effects which come within the package of running a high profile business and the bigger is the business, the longer it will take to find out the root cause of data breaches.

Knowledge of Data Breaches

Some commonly made mistakes or loopholes that usually go unnoticed are actually golden chances for a hacker for invasion and it can lead to major data breaches. Lacking to resolve this issue, results in loss of trusted clientele. As described in the research by Omnisend, such causes of data breaches can be categorized into following divisions. Having this knowledge about causes of data breach can be helpful in preventing privileged information from leaking out in the open.

1. Frail Credentials

As weak passwords are the easiest way to invade privacy, it is necessary for the organizations to use strong credentials that consist of a combination of at least 12 to 15 characters. Passwords including a personal relation or any general sequence of letters are very easy to crack. Also, using similar credentials for multiple purposes is not a wise move. Having a longer unique password in no particular order, incorporated with mixture of alphanumeric characters, works well with a second authentication method of confirming identification.

2. Device Data Theft

Even if you have strong credentials, you’re at a risk of data breach in terms of your device theft consisting of your personal information. This includes all the PCs, laptops, hard drives, smartphones, CDs, server systems and whatever computing devices that are used to store any type of sensitive information. Any such unattended computing device on the company’s premises can easily be stolen from the company by an opportunist potential hacker. Best way to avoid device theft is to provide high end security to the devices in question and not to trust anyone about it.

3. Misused Authorities and Human errors

Talking about trust issues leads us to the next category of data breaches caused by misuse of sensitive information and that too, by none other than the inside authorities. The higher inside authorities have access to almost all kinds of confidential data files whose theft causes a data breach that is impossible to detect or predict.

Some more malicious insiders are trusted users abusing their privileged authorities and access rights by stealing important data files and selling the sensitive information contained within for their own personal gains. Some common human errors also become the cause of severe data breaches including careless behavior of employees, staff members using weak passwords or being uneducated about the basics of staying at alert.

4. Potential Physical Attacks and Granted Permissions

You might want to rethink about the security of your building and the potential physical attacks that may endanger your organization’s reputation in the market. Hackers can not only control the server systems but can also invade the property to get what they want. High level security is a must-to-have for every company that is at risk of data breaches and the list of permissions granted to their employees equally matters. Too many permissions given to an ordinary worker is also not considered a safe move in terms of security when it comes to sensitive data environment.

5. Malwares Breaching Security

Not being able to breach the security physically, a hacker may use his most favorite weapon that is Malicious Malware. These softwares are specifically designed to hack the systems for the mere purpose of invading private data files and stealing the sensitive confidential information. Many professional hackers who know their work by heart are pro at disguising their software as to prevent their detection by simply making some minor modifications to the existing malware programs. Such malwares still produce the intended effect but goes unrecognized by those antivirus programs.

Conclusion

Most organizations do like to consider them safe and securely protected against susceptible data breaches by assuming that they are well wired in terms of safety or some even presume themselves of being small firms to be attacked in the first place. However, as long as confidential data is involved, no target is small or well protected so it is always a better option to stay on high alert of any potential breaches.

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