What is a data security breach?
According to searchsecurity.com, a data security breach is:
“A data breach is a confirmed incident in which sensitive, confidential or otherwise protected data has been accessed and/or disclosed in an unauthorized fashion. Data breaches may involve personal health information (PHI), personally identifiable information (PII), trade secrets or intellectual property.”
Data breaches can be extreme as a criminal digging through trash bags containing old company records or as simple as an employee looking at a file on a coworkers computer screen that they are not authorized to view.
Data breaches can be extremely harmful on both a personal and business level.
In order to help you recognize and prevent data security breaches occurring to your business, here’s a look at some of the most notable breaches in the past decade.
3 Huge Data Security Breaches in The Past Decade
- Equifax
When was it: September 2017
What happened: Hackers exploited a vulnerability in the system and managed to steal the names, social security numbers, dates of birth, credit card information, and driver’s license numbers from 147 million Americans.
- Yahoo!
When was it: September/December 2016
What happened: in September of 2016, Yahoo! announced that it had been victim to two separate data breaches in the previous five years that exposed more than three billion records.
Not only did this severely tarnish Yahoo’s reputation, but it also resulted in them having to pay 117.5 million dollars in a class-action lawsuit.
- River City Media
When was it: March 2017
What happened: due to an improperly configured backup that placed their entire database online, River City media leaked more than 1.4 billion private records. This included IP addresses, names, and physical addresses.
How to Protect Your Business From Data Security Breaches
In order to prevent data security breaches from occurring in your workplace, there are a number of things you can do.
- Properly store and lock up any sensitive physical documents.
- Install the appropriate malware protection on all devices.
- Conduct regular security audits.
- Make sure all electronic devices are password protected.
- Have a strategy in place to limit past employee access to your office and records.
Make sure to consider these points and you’ll significantly reduce your chances of being the victim of a data security breach!
Western Archives – The Safest Option for Data Storage and Destruction
Western Archives has been helping companies store and destroy their sensitive documents for years. They own and operate a state-of-the-art document storage facility with 24/7 security to help keep your company secrets safe.
They also have in-house and mobile shredding solutions to help you dispose of old or expired documents and free up some much-needed space in the office.
Contact them today to learn how they can help your business!