The theft of consumer files from businesses,
doctor's offices, universities, lenders, and other such
institutions is an efficient way for a thief to gather data.
Many of these companies have relaxed security policies that
can make it easy for a thief to steal a computer, hack into
an operating system, or take actual files.
View Latest Data Breaches
Question: Are there more security breaches now than ever
before?
This question is hard to answer. More companies are
revealing that they have had a data breach, either due to
laws or public pressure. Our sense is that two things are
happening - the criminal population is stealing more data
from companies AND that we are hearing more about the
breaches.
Question: Are all breaches alike?
No - security breaches can be broken down into a number of
categories. What they have in common is that they
usually contained personal identifying information in a
format easily read by thieves, in other words, not
encrypted.
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Lost or stolen laptops, computers or other computer
storage devices
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Backup tapes lost in transit because they were not
sent either electronically nor with a qualified
human escort
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Hackers breaking into systems
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Employees stealing information or allowing access to
information
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Information bought by a fake business
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Poor business practices - for example sending
postcards with Social Security numbers on them
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Internal security failures
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Viruses, Trojan Horses and computer security
loopholes
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Information tossed into dumpsters - improper
disposition of information