Data breach impact

Hand-drawn sketch: Rows are not the measure. Breach severity depends on what was exposed, to whom and what harm follows, not how many rows.

How bad a breach is depends on what was exposed, to whom, and what harm follows. Not how many records were in it.

Ten thousand email addresses and ten thousand medical records are the same number and entirely different events. The headline count is the easiest thing to report and the least informative, and it shapes both public reaction and internal prioritisation in ways that frequently point away from the actual harm.

Checked against the primary source.

Data breach impact

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