Data Breach

In the case of social media, a data breach refers to an incident in which sensitive, protected, or confidential information about people who use a social media platform is disclosed—often because of hacking. Hackers usually get access to this information by taking advantage of the platform's vulnerabilities, or by simply breaking in through poorly designed security measures, or some kind of internal negligence. This is the kind of information that hackers live for. And they spend a lot of time phishing, using malware, or just trying to find a poor, insecure database that they can exploit. Or they use poor APIs. When they do this, the fallout can involve anything from a Facebook user not being able to sign in anymore, to their whole identity being stolen; or, when businesses are involved, hacks that expose secret marketing strategies or private customer interactions. How bad is it? Even the hackers who aren't actually working for the U.S. or some other government agency think that using social media is a great way to get at people and their private lives.