[attrition] Groups: Record Data Breaches in 2007

[lyger]

http://attrition.org/news/content/08-01-03.001.html

BOSTON (AP) - The loss or theft of personal data such as credit card and 
Social Security numbers soared to unprecedented levels in 2007, and the 
trend isn't expected to turn around anytime soon as hackers stay a step 
ahead of security and laptops disappear with sensitive information.

And while companies, government agencies, schools and other institutions 
are spending more to protect ever-increasing volumes of data with more 
sophisticated firewalls and encryption, the investment often is too little 
too late.

"More of them are experiencing data breaches, and they're responding to 
them in a reactive way, rather than proactively looking at the company's 
security and seeing where the holes might be," said Linda Foley, who 
founded the San Diego-based Identity Theft Resource Center after becoming 
an identity theft victim herself.

Foley's group lists more than 79 million records reported compromised in 
the United States through Dec. 18. That's a nearly fourfold increase from 
the nearly 20 million records reported in all of 2006.

Another group, Attrition.org, estimates more than 162 million records 
compromised through Dec. 21 . both in the U.S. and overseas, unlike the 
other group's U.S.-only list. Attrition reported 49 million last year.

"It's just the nature of business, that moving forward, more companies are 
going to have more records, so there will be more records compromised each 
year," said Attrition's Brian Martin. "I imagine the total records 
compromised will steadily climb."

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