VCDB

VCDB, short for Veris Community Database, is a publicly accessible repository of cybersecurity incident data collected and curated to support research and analysis. It uses the VERIS framework (Vocabulary for Event Recording and Incident Sharing) to describe incidents in a standardized, machine-readable format. The database focuses on publicly disclosed data breaches and privacy incidents, but also includes other security incidents when information is available.

The dataset aims to enable researchers and practitioners to compare incidents, identify patterns, and study trends across time, sectors, and regions. It compiles structured records that typically cover fields such as date, victim organization, country or region, breach type, assets affected, and actor or threat characteristics, among other attributes. The emphasis on standardized taxonomy facilitates quantitative analysis and cross-study comparability.

Historically, VCDB emerged from the Veris project and the broader open-security community as a practical implementation of the VERIS framework. It relies on volunteer contributions from researchers and practitioners and has been maintained through community-driven releases, making incident data more accessible for academic and industry work.

Access and usage: The data is publicly available through the VCDB website and related repositories, with records commonly provided in CSV and JSON formats. It is frequently cited in academic papers, industry reports, and security analyses that address breach patterns, incident response, and risk assessment. Users should note that not all incidents are captured, details may be incomplete or uncertain, and licensing or attribution terms can vary by release.

Relationship to VERIS: VCDB serves as a real-world, community-sourced companion to the VERIS framework, providing a large, standardized corpus of incident records for research and analysis.