First Reported Data Breach

Date: April 5, 2002 • Location: Parksdale, United States

In the first reported data breach, 250,000 social security numbers collected by the State of California were stolen from a data center.

A data breach, also known as a data leak, is "the unauthorized exposure, disclosure, or loss of personal information". Attackers have a variety of motives, from financial gain to political activism, political repression, and espionage. There are several technical root causes of data breaches, including accidental or intentional disclosure of information by insiders, loss or theft of unencrypted devices, hacking into a system by exploiting software vulnerabilities, and social engineering attacks such as phishing where insiders are tricked into disclosing information. Although prevention efforts can reduce the risk of a data breach, they cannot eliminate it.