Which incident type involves the theft of sensitive information through unauthorized access?

Data exfiltration is characterized by the unauthorized transfer of sensitive data from a system or network. This incident type typically involves hackers bypassing security measures to access confidential information, such as personal data, financial records, or intellectual property, and then transferring this data to an external location.

In the context of cybersecurity, data exfiltration can take various forms, including network breaches, where attackers gain access to databases or file systems. Once the data is accessed, attackers may use various techniques to extract this information without detection. This makes the term "data exfiltration" specifically aligned with the scenario of sensitive information theft through unauthorized access.

In contrast, other incident types do not primarily focus on the theft of sensitive information through such means. For example, ransomware involves the encryption of data to hold it hostage, while malware infections refer to software designed to harm or exploit devices, and denial-of-service attacks aim to make services unavailable rather than stealing data. Each of these scenarios highlights different aspects of cybersecurity threats, but they do not centrally focus on the unauthorized access and theft of data as data exfiltration does.