Data Breach Disclosure

This question asks if you've had a data breach serious enough to require notifying authorities, affected individuals, or partner organizations in the past three years. Think of it as asking about your security track record—have you had incidents where customer data was compromised or potentially exposed? This includes both confirmed breaches and situations where you notified people as a precaution.

How you handle breach disclosure can make or break enterprise deals. Honest disclosure with clear remediation steps shows maturity and can actually strengthen trust. Concealing breaches that surface later leads to immediate contract termination, legal liability, and reputational damage that takes years to recover from. Companies with clean records or well-managed incident responses win more deals.

The worst mistake is hiding breaches thinking they're too small to matter—any reportable breach counts. Another pitfall is providing insufficient context about remediation. Simply saying 'yes, we had a breach' without explaining the improvements made since then creates unnecessary concern and follow-up questions.