Data Breach
A data breach is an incident in which sensitive, protected, or confidential information is accessed, disclosed, or acquired by unauthorized parties, typically triggering notification obligations under data protection law in most jurisdictions.
What Actually Constitutes a Data Breach
Different regulations define data breach differently. Under GDPR, a personal data breach is any breach of security leading to accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorized disclosure of, or access to personal data. US state laws typically focus on unauthorized acquisition of specific data types. Sectoral rules (HIPAA, financial services) have their own definitions.
The practical takeaway is that "data breach" is a regulatory term with jurisdiction-specific triggers. Legal analysis is required to determine which regime applies and what obligations attach.
Costs Beyond Notification
Data breach costs extend well beyond the direct notification and remediation. Common categories include forensic investigation, legal counsel, regulatory response and fines, customer notification and credit monitoring, litigation defense and settlement, and reputational and business-interruption impacts.
Quantified programs model these categories individually rather than treating breach as a single loss type, since the driver profiles differ substantially.
Data Breach in CRQ
Data breach scenarios sit within a broader portfolio of cyber loss scenarios modeled in CRQ. Frequency and severity distributions calibrate against observed real-world breach data, with organization-specific factors (data categories held, geographic scope, control posture) shaping the model.
Related Terms
Turn Cyber Risk Into Financial Exposure the Board Can Act On
Security leaders are being asked to defend budgets, prioritize controls, and report cyber risk in the same terms as every other enterprise risk. Kovrr's CRQ Platform models loss scenarios, benchmarks control performance, and gives the C-suite a defensible view of where cyber sits on the balance sheet.
