A data breach is when personal details fall into the hands of third parties who should not have access to this information. Instances where a breach cannot be ruled out are also considered data breaches. Destroying personal details or rendering them unusable also constitutes a data breach. A data breach is always the result of a security incident and can occur by accident or deliberately. A security incident leads to a data breach if it involves personal data.
A data breach implies a violation of the General Data Protection Regulation (AVG). These violations carry high administrative fines. As the law prescribes strict requirements to the time in which to report a data breach (within 72 hours), it is important that you immediately report a detected data breach to us without fail using the button on this page.You can read how we handle your notification in the University of Twente Data Breach procedure.