You are viewing a free preview of this lesson.
Subscribe to unlock all 10 lessons in this course and every other course on LearningBro.
Sensitive data exposure occurs when a web application fails to adequately protect sensitive information such as financial data, health records, personal identifiers, and authentication credentials. This can happen during storage, transmission, or processing, and it is one of the leading causes of data breaches worldwide.
Sensitive data is any information that requires protection due to its potential impact if exposed:
| Category | Examples |
|---|---|
| Personal Identifiable Information (PII) | Names, addresses, dates of birth, national ID numbers |
| Financial data | Credit card numbers, bank account details, transaction records |
| Authentication credentials | Passwords, API keys, session tokens, OAuth secrets |
| Health information | Medical records, prescriptions, insurance details |
| Business data | Trade secrets, intellectual property, internal communications |
| Legal data | Contracts, court records, attorney-client communications |
Data transmitted without encryption can be intercepted by anyone on the network path:
[Browser] ──── HTTP (plaintext) ────▶ [Server]
▲
│
[Attacker on network can read everything]
Prevention:
Subscribe to continue reading
Get full access to this lesson and all 10 lessons in this course.