Data Breach

Any event where confidential data is viewed, transmitted, stolen or used by an unauthorised individual. Data breaches are often caused by user error, lost or stolen devices, data-stealing malware, targeted attacks or malicious insiders. According to a survey of IT administrators carried out by the Irish Computer Society in 2016, 61% of Irish companies have suffered a data breach. Negligent employees were cited as the biggest source of data breaches, followed by external attackers and unencrypted end-user devices. Employees are your eyes and ears for breaches. During IT security awareness training, employees should be instructed on breach-prevention strategies and reminded of the importance of reporting a suspected breach to your information security team or relevant person. Moreover, they need to be made aware of the breach reporting time limits that the GDPR imposes