data breach

7 synonyms for data breach, grouped by meaning and by how common each one is.

Noun — An incident in which private information held by an organisation is seen, copied or taken by someone with no right to it, whether through an attack, a misconfigured system or a mistake by staff.

Synonyms

Rare, literary or technical

Precise, but they will stand out — check the sense before using one.

security breach data compromise information breach data incident breach data leaked dataset exposed records

Synonyms by Meaning

1. noun computing, legal

An incident in which private information held by an organisation is seen, copied or taken by someone with no right to it, whether through an attack, a misconfigured system or a mistake by staff.

“The retailer disclosed a data breach affecting the email addresses of two million customers.”

security breach data compromise information breach data incident

2. noun computing

The body of information exposed by such an incident, especially when it later circulates or is offered for sale.

“His old password turned up in a data breach from 2019.”

breach data leaked dataset exposed records

How to use data breach

The word patterns that sound natural to a native speaker.

suffer a data breach disclose a data breach data breach notification massive data breach breach of personal data

Neutral and standard, common in news, corporate and legal writing, where it carries specific reporting obligations under data-protection law in many countries.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a data breach and a data leak?

The words overlap and are often used interchangeably. In careful usage, a breach implies protections were broken or bypassed, usually by someone acting deliberately, while a leak suggests information was left exposed through error or misconfiguration and could simply be found. Both result in information reaching people who should not have it.

What is the difference between a data breach and a hack?

A hack describes unauthorised access to a system, which is one way a breach can happen. A data breach is defined by the outcome: information ending up outside its intended boundary. A breach can occur with no hacking at all, for instance when a database is left open to the internet or a file is emailed to the wrong recipient.

Does a data breach always involve passwords?

No. What is exposed depends entirely on what the organisation held, and can be names, addresses, order histories, medical records or internal documents. Where passwords are involved, they may be stored in scrambled form, which affects how readily they can be used.

Nearby words

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