The world is full of surprises and sometimes, those surprises are anything but pleasant. Anything from a won lottery ticket to a phishing scheme gone bad, can surprise us on a daily basis. What we don’t like to hear is that there was a data breach in a huge company, particularly a company which also holds our own data.

This can make us feel unsafe, knowing that someone else has access to some of our data. Data branches have been aplenty in the last couple of years, so it is time to take a closer look at how they happen and why they are important. Here is what you should know about data breaches and how they happen.

Bad Company Security Systems

If a company has subpar security systems, then it becomes very easy for an outside party to gain access to chunks of data. There are many ways in which a security system can be subpar, and we are not talking about video surveillance and cards that permit entry to certain parts of a company, but rather database security systems and making sure that secure files cannot be accessed by outside parties or even from anywhere outside.

Most security systems have flaws, but only a couple of them have flaws which can actually be exploited by someone who knows how to hack or rather, is willing to go the distance to obtain data.

User Error

This is perhaps the most common cause of data breaches. Users, particularly those that work with databases, can forget to log off, or will have browsing habits that might compromise the security of their system. This is problematic, especially since working with sensitive data requires one to be careful of what they are doing. 

Sensitive information such as credentials should never be leaked. However, most systems that have sensitive information should not be able to be accessed from outside a facility.

Leaks

Leaks are a fancy way of saying that someone purposely allowed information to get through. This frequently happens with video games and new tech products. It is believed that some leaks are basically done by the marketing team of a company, to make sure that their product is talked about even though it is months away from launch.

Data leaks are another thing entirely. The leaker might have ulterior motives, for example, earning money, or they could simply want revenge on a company. Either way, leaks can happen and it is almost always an inside job. 

Meticulous Hacking Attempts

Some hackers will stop at nothing to find information about a topic they are interested in. They live for getting other people’s data and they will not stop until they have it. Ransomware was developed for this purpose.

It comes as no surprise that such people would go to great lengths to attempt and obtain data from sites such as Facebook or Google and its subsidiaries. 

Data breaches are not pretty and they can compromise a lot of people’s information. They happen because of bad security habits and systems, user errors or leaks, and even though there might be more specific reasons why, these are the most common ones.