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The terminology can be confusing, but here’s what you need to know:

• Data breaches occur when unauthorized individuals or systems gain illicit access to data, copying or stealing it.
• Data loss, on the other hand, pertains to data that has been destroyed, deleted or gone missing.

During a data breach, security measures are compromised, allowing external parties to obtain access to sensitive data. This data is often discreetly copied rather than destroyed, enabling cybercriminals to later sell it to other illicit groups. Like the term implies, in a data loss scenario, the data is irretrievably gone.

Although data breaches and data loss represent distinct events, they can sometimes intersect. For instance, data breaches may involve the destruction of data post-theft. Threats like ransomware, which encrypt and effectively destroy data, are sometimes categorized as breaches due to their ability to bypass security protocols.