Cyber Security Key Terms - Event, Risk, Incident and Breach

The terms - event, risk, incident and breach - are generally not clearly understood and at times used in a manner which is not appropriate.

So what do these terms mean?

Here is an attempt to define these terms in a very simple language.

Event is any observable occurrence in a system or network. Some events can be conveniently ignored, whereas some would need to be investigated and there are some that would even need some kind of an action. An example of an event would be someone attempting to hack a company's network

Risk refers to the likelihood of a certain event that has the potential to cause some kind of loss or damage. An example of a risk would be data being stolen from a company's network.

Incident is a risk that gets materialized. An example of an incident would be an actual instance of data being stolen from a company's network.

Breach is an incident that violates specific legal requirements. An example of a breach would be an actual instance of data being stolen from a company's network where the breach involves personal information which violates privacy regulations.