What term describes the threat of someone stealing hard copies that have been thrown out?

The term that describes the threat of someone stealing hard copies that have been thrown out is indeed dumpster diving. This practice involves searching through garbage bins or dumpsters to find discarded materials that may contain confidential or sensitive information. Individuals who engage in dumpster diving are often looking for documents, such as financial statements, personal identification, or business records, which can be used for identity theft or other malicious purposes.

Dumpster diving highlights the importance of properly disposing of sensitive information, such as shredding documents before disposal to prevent unauthorized access to data. It is a proactive step organizations and individuals should take in protecting their information from potential threats that can arise from seemingly innocuous actions like throwing away paper documents.

The other choices pertain to different threats in the cybersecurity realm but do not specifically relate to the act of retrieving discarded physical documents. Social engineering involves manipulating individuals into divulging confidential information through deception, phishing typically refers to fraudulent attempts to obtain sensitive information via electronic communication, and data breaching is the unauthorized access and retrieval of sensitive data from a system.