What do the Breach Severity Ratings mean?

Find out what the Breach Severity values in SMBreach mean.

In this article, you'll learn:

• What do the Breach Severity ratings in SMBreach mean?
• What does a High breach severity rating mean?
• What does a Medium breach severity rating mean?
• What does a Low breach severity rating mean?

What do the Breach Severity ratings in SMBreach mean?

The Breach Severity is a rating that gives you a quick overview of how serious breaches affecting your users are. The severity rating is automatically set by the type of data that was exposed in the breach, and can be one of Low, Medium or High.

What does a High breach severity rating mean?

A High rating in the Breach Severity column means that the information exposed in the breach could result in immediate harm to your company or the affected user, and the breach should be addressed immediately. The most common reason for a breach to be rated as of High severity is because passwords were exposed. In these breaches, you should advise the affected users to immediately change any exposed password.

What does a Medium breach severity rating mean?

A Medium rating in the Breach Severity column means that the information exposed in the breach could result in harm to your company or the affected user, but this harm is not likely to be immediate or extremely damaging. Breach of information such as email addresses and bank account numbers may result in a Medium rating for a breach.

What does a Low breach severity rating mean?

A Low rating in the Breach Severity column means that the information exposed in the breach is not likely to result in immediate harm to the company or affected user. This information could be used by cyber-criminals in scams such as identity theft or phishing attacks, but it is not by itself highly valuable to a cyber-criminal. Personal information such as profile photos, dates of birth and job titles are likely to result in a Low severity rating for a breach.