According to the Identity Theft Resource Center in San Diego, 449 data breaches have been reported as of August 22 2008, compared to 446 in all of 2007. The breaches included consumer data as well as data from nonprofit and educational organizations.
Lost and stolen laptops (and other digital media) were the largest category reported, comprising 21 percent of the incidents. The remainder broke down as follows:
11 percent: breaches attributed to subcontractors
13 percent: hacking
14 percent: accidental publishing or release of sensitive data
15.6 percent: theft by company employees
[…] information is understandable given the rise in privacy breaches over the last year (as seen here and […]