In today's world, the development of cyber threats is becoming increasingly severe. Personal data breaches have become another problem that organizations around the world are worried about and fearful of the impact that may occur. Because when a personal data breach occurs, in addition to affecting the security of personal data, organizations that experience personal data breaches also face damage to their reputation, loss of trust from customers, and legal liability under the Personal Data Protection Act B.E. 2562, which may lead to being fined a huge amount of money.
Therefore, in order to understand personal data breaches and know the main causes of data breach incidents, it is very important, which will allow organizations to assess risks, plan to deal with them, and improve data security measures effectively.
A personal data breach means a breach of security measures that causes personal data to be lost, accessed, used, altered, or disclosed without authorization, whether due to intent, negligence, cyber threats, or other errors.
Personal data breaches are divided into 3 main types:
1. Confidentiality Breach: Data is accessed or disclosed without authorization.
2. Integrity Breach: Data is improperly altered, modified, or damaged.
3. Availability Breach: Data is lost, destroyed, or cannot be accessed normally.
(Data from PDPC Eagle Eyes)
1. Attacks through Google vulnerabilities (Google Hack): This is a system intrusion by hackers who exploit weaknesses or vulnerabilities in Google or related services, resulting in personal data being accessed without authorization.
2. Data Leakage: This is a type of data leakage that occurs due to errors in data storage or inadequate security systems, resulting in personal data leaking out of the system unintentionally, which often occurs due to a lack of inspection and strict control.
3. Human Error: This is an error caused by direct human action, such as incorrect security settings, user or system administrator errors, unintentionally disclosing information by those who have the right to access information to other unauthorized persons, which is a common basic cause and results in personal data being leaked unintentionally.
4. Websites secretly selling data: This is a type of operation by malicious people who collect personal data in order to sell it through the black market. This is considered an illegal act and causes serious damage to the owners of personal data, as most of the data that is sold is often used in the wrong way and results in further damage.
5. Malware Virus: Malware is a type of malicious program that is designed to steal or destroy data from the target's device, which can spread and damage personal data quickly, often disguised as downloads or opening suspicious files.
From the statistics above, it can be seen that personal data breach incidents can occur for a variety of reasons, both in causes that organizations can prevent and cannot prevent. Despite the efforts in security management to be as efficient as possible, what is equally important as having a process for maintaining the security of information and information systems that complies with standards is that the organization has a process for assessing risks and notifying personal data breach incidents systematically. This is so that the organization can handle such incidents in a timely manner, which is to prevent risks from PDPA legal liability and damage to the organization's reputation, as well as to build confidence in maintaining the security of customers' and service users' personal data.
If you have any questions about managing personal data breach incidents, Athentic Consulting has personal data protection law experts who are willing to advise you on the process of assessing risks and notifying personal data breach incidents effectively and preparing full PDPA Compliance.
Study more news related to personal data breaches in Thailand at Analysis of the PDPC's Announcement on Imposing a 7 million Baht Fine for Data Breach
