A data breach is an incident in which sensitive data, such as personally identifiable information (PII), trade secrets, or intellectual property, has potentially been viewed, stolen, or used by an unauthorized individual. Data breaches in the corporate environment are common and may be the result of the theft or loss of a computing device, internal employees inadvertently introducing malware into the network, or external hackers directly targeting a company’s network. Because these incidents can damage a company’s reputation and are costly and time-consuming to mitigate, data breach prevention is a top priority in most IT environments.
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