Data Breaches Soared to Record Levels in 2007

[mandy]

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.

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," ...

"A lot of breaches are due to inadequate information handling, such as laptop computers with Social Security numbers on them that are lost," said Linda Foley, who founded the San Diego-based Identity Theft Resource Center after becoming an identity theft victim herself. "This is human error, and something that's completely avoidable, as opposed to a hacker breaking into your computer system."...

full article: http://ecommercetimes.com/story/Data-Bre...60992.html