What is a Data Breach and How to Prevent it?

A data breach is an incident in which an unauthorized person or entity gains access to sensitive or protected data. This can happen due to various reasons, including hacking, malware, or phishing. The information targeted in a data breach usually includes personally identifiable information, financial data, health records, or intellectual property. Data breaches can occur in any organization, leading to severe consequences, such as financial losses, reputational damage, and legal liabilities. Preventing data breaches requires implementing technical and organizational measures, such as access controls, software updates, security training, and regular audits. In case of a data breach, organizations must notify the affected individuals and take appropriate measures to minimize the damage.

Data breaches will continue to be a serious problem and application vulnerabilities will be one of, if not the highest, causes for them. Organizations seeking to tap the opportunities of digital transformation must not only accelerate development cycles and code releases but transform their legacy application security approaches to meet the demands of modern software.