A data leak happens when sensitive information is exposed outside of your organization. This can happen in a variety of ways, including hacks and employee negligence. A well-defined incident response plan and policies for detecting these incidents will help mitigate the damage.
Cybercriminals take advantage of the availability of PII in data leaks to exploit victims and commit other crimes such as identity theft, scams and fraud. Using leaked information, they can access your victims’ financial accounts, sign up for new services in their names and even file fraudulent tax returns.
Malicious insiders can also cause data leaks. For instance, in 2021, a disgruntled employee at a medical center in Georgia downloaded private patient information on to a USB drive and then leaked the data to a news outlet. This allowed hackers to get their hands on test results, name, addresses and social security numbers. The company had to pay compensation for each victim and offer two years of credit monitoring services.
Misconfigured cloud storage environments can also cause a data leak. In 2023, a Microsoft Azure Blob Store misconfiguration exposed 38 TB of internal data, including PII and open source AI training data.
If you discover a data leak, notify the people affected by the breach as soon as possible. Ideally, this should be done in person so that individuals can respond immediately to limit the damage. In addition, be sure to consult with law enforcement about the timing of this notification so that it doesn’t impede your investigation.
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