Government Data Breaches Expose 2500% More Records in 2009

by Doug Pollack

It has been reported that 2009 has been the year of the mega-data breach. Recently reported statistics by the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC)  would seem to bear this out as far as our federal government and military is concerned as well.

Government Technology, commenting on the report noted that “the breaches so far in 2009 have compromised more than 79 million records, whereas fewer than 3 million were hacked in 2008. A sobering upswing, to say the least. ” This represents a staggering 2500% growth in number of individuals who’s personal information was exposed via our federal government in 2009 (year to date) vs. 2008.

Linda Foley, founder and chairwoman of the ITRC stated that “it’s the same problem. Records are being exposed, so they’re being hacked into; they’re being lost; they’re being put into laptops and carried around. Again, it comes back to, ‘Why are they carrying information with them that they didn’t need?’”

The data confirmed what has become somewhat obvious to those who follow the data breach situation, that the increasing mobility of data and data access significantly contributes to the risks of loss. While there are technology solutions to this problem, the adoption and use of mobile devices seems to be outpacing organizations’ ability to address the new risks.