In cybersecurity attacks, we hear a lot about data leaks and data exfiltration. Both terms get used to describe unauthorized access or transfer of sensitive information, but they differ in their methods and intentions.
Data Exfiltration
- Data exfiltration refers to the stealing or unauthorized extraction of an organization’s sensitive information from a system or network by an attacker.
- This process typically involves intentionally accessing and stealing valuable information such as intellectual property, Financial Data, Employee’s Personal Information called personally-identifiable Information (PII) with the intention of using it for malicious purposes, such as financial gain.
- Attackers may use various techniques to exfiltrate sensitive information, including exploiting vulnerable user systems and network defenses, deploying malware to establish backdoors or command-and-control channels, or using social engineering tactics to trick users into divulging sensitive information.
- Data exfiltration can go undetected for a long period of time allowing attackers to continue stealing data and potentially causing harm to the targeted organization.
Data Leak
- Data leaks, on the other hand, usually involve the unintentional or accidental exposure of an organization's sensitive information due to human error (most of the time this is the reason), misconfiguration, or inadequate security measures.
- Unlike data exfiltration, data leaks do not necessarily involve malicious intents or deliberate efforts by external attackers. Instead, they may result from internal mistakes such as sending sensitive emails to the wrong recipients, misconfiguring cloud storage settings, or inadvertently uploading confidential documents online.
- Data leaks can occur through various channels like insecure databases, unencrypted communication channels or unencrypted sensitive documents, misplaced user devices containing sensitive information, or insider actions such as accidental data disclosures by employee, source code sharing, etc.
- While data leaks may not be malicious, they can still have serious consequences for organizations, including reputational damage, regulatory fines, and most importantly loss of customer trust.
Conclusion:
In summary, data exfiltration involves the deliberate theft of sensitive information by malicious attacks for criminal purposes, while data leaks typically result from unintentional errors or lapses in security controls, leading to inadvertent exposure of sensitive information. Both data exfiltration and data leaks pose a significant risk to organizations and require proactive measures to be in place, such as robust security protocols, encryption of sensitive information at all levels, business-critical application security and continuous monitoring, to prevent and mitigate potential damage.
