noun

data breach

DAY-tuh BREECH

Data breach (noun) means 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. Example: “The retailer disclosed a data breach affecting the email addresses of two million customers.”

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."

"A data breach at the clinic exposed appointment records going back four years."

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."

How to Use Data breach

Learner’s notes

In plain EnglishWhen private information held by a company gets out to people who should not have it.

When to use it

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

Memory tip

Countable: 'a data breach', 'three data breaches'. The verb is normally 'suffer' or 'disclose', not 'do'.

Easily confused with

data leak hack → ransomware → identity theft

Common pairings

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

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The retailer disclosed a _____ affecting the email addresses of two million customers.

Synonyms

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

Rhymes for data breach

each teach peach beach leach reach bleach breach preach impeach outreach

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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.