breach
What It Means
A breach occurs when someone gains unauthorized access to sensitive data, or when an authorized person uses that data for purposes they're not supposed to. It's essentially any situation where personal information ends up in the wrong hands or gets misused, whether through hacking, employee mistakes, or intentional misuse.
Why Chief AI Officers Care
AI systems often process vast amounts of personal data for training and operations, making them high-value targets for attackers and creating significant breach risks. When breaches occur, CAIOs face regulatory fines, legal liability, damaged customer trust, and potential suspension of AI operations until security is restored.
Real-World Example
An AI customer service chatbot trained on customer support tickets accidentally exposes personal information from those tickets in its responses to other customers, or a data scientist downloads customer data to train a model but stores it on an unsecured personal laptop that gets stolen.
Common Confusion
People often think a breach only means external hackers breaking in, but it also includes authorized employees accessing or using data inappropriately, accidental exposures, and system misconfigurations that expose data.
Industry-Specific Applications
See how this term applies to healthcare, finance, manufacturing, government, tech, and insurance.
Healthcare: In healthcare, a breach specifically refers to unauthorized acquisition, access, use, or disclosure of protected health ...
Finance: In finance, a breach typically involves unauthorized access to customer financial data, payment information, or trading ...
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Includes:
- 6 industry-specific applications
- Relevant regulations by sector
- Real compliance scenarios
- Implementation guidance
Technical Definitions
NISTNational Institute of Standards and Technology
"The loss of control, compromise, unauthorized disclosure, unauthorized acquisition, or any similar occurrence where: a person other than an authorized user accesses or potentially accesses personally identifiable information; or an authorized user accesses personally identifiable information for another than authorized purpose."Source: CSRC
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