Breachfailure

Breachfailure is a term used in risk management and cybersecurity to describe an attempted security breach that is detected and halted before any protected data is accessed or exfiltrated. In this sense, it represents a near-miss where the attacker’s objective is not achieved, and the incident ends with no material loss of information or system compromise.

The term is a neologism formed from breach and failure and is used to distinguish unsuccessful breach events from successful breaches. It appears in practitioner literature, audit reports, and incident-response discussions, particularly when evaluating the effectiveness of defense-in-depth and the timeliness of security monitoring.

Several mechanisms can lead to a breachfailure, including multi-factor authentication, network segmentation, automated alerting, rapid containment, and robust backup and restoration procedures. Metrics commonly discussed alongside breachfailure include detection time, containment time, breach attempt rate, and the estimated residual risk of data exposure, all aimed at reducing the probability that a breach succeeds.

Assessing breachfailure helps organizations identify control gaps, improve playbooks, and justify investments in preventive controls and training. While not a formal standard, the concept emphasizes proactive defense and rapid response as essential elements of modern cybersecurity and risk management.

See also: security breach, near miss, intrusion detection system, defense in depth.