A story in today's Washington Post states that according to the Identity Theft Resource Center in San Diego, reported data breaches are up 69% from a year ago.
The Identity Theft Resource Center, according to its website, is a nonprofit group that is "dedicated exclusively to the understanding and prevention of identity theft."
The group identified 342 breach reports from 1 January to 27 June, with more than one-third being from businesses. This was up by 27% from last year.
Data breaches among health-care providers and banks now account for 15% and 10% of the breaches respectively, with both increasing over last year as well.
Lost or stolen laptops, lost tapes and the like were given as causing the most breaches, whereas hacking was the least cited reason. About 15% of the breaches were inadvertent postings of personal or financial data on-line.
The group did put a caveat on its numbers, however. As reported in the Post story, "Linda Foley, the center's co-founder, said it is difficult to say whether the numbers show an increase in breaches, an increase in reporting, or both. She said better state laws on data breach notification also might be encouraging more companies to audit their own security measures."
