Avoid Data Breaches

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Data Breaches and practices to avoid them

Data breaches happen more frequently than you think, and it’s important to know exactly what data breaches are and how we can take measures to avoid them. A data breach is an accident where confidential or protected data has been ceased or accessed in an illegal way. Data that is captured can include health information, identifiable information and or trade secrets or intellectual property. The most common type of data breaches are ones that contain personal information, such as credit card numbers, Social Security numbers and healthcare records. There are also breaches at the corporate level that include customer lists, manufacturing processes and software source code. Sometimes these breaches come from within the organization or from someone who has access to the data and those are the cases that are more at risk. An example of this would be if an unauthorized hospital employee views a patient's health information on a computer screen of an employee who is authorized.
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These breaches can happen due to many factors such as weak passwords, lost software patches or lost or stolen laptop computers and mobile devices. Data breaches can happen when there are vulnerabilities in the operating systems and applications. If they are not properly patched or updated then it puts all the data on those system and other connected systems at risk. Breaches can also happen when computers are not protected with anti-malware software which makes them vulnerable to infection. If your wireless connection isn’t secured then anyone can connect to it and get information that