100 million Americans exposed to identity theft in 2 years

This is quite a scary statistic. Although not every data breach will be used for identity theft (many lost tapes will remain in dumpsters etc), there is certainly a lot to be concerned about.

A Chronology of Data Breaches Since the ChoicePoint Incident

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The data breaches noted below have been reported because the personal information compromised includes data elements useful to identity thieves, such as Social Security numbers, account numbers, and driver's license numbers. Some breaches that do NOT expose such sensitive information have been included in order to underscore the variety and frequency of data breaches. However, we have not included the number of records involved in such breaches in the total because we want this compilation to reflect breaches that expose individuals to identity theft as well as breaches that qualify for disclosure under state laws. The running total we maintain at the end of the Chronology represents the approximate number of *records* that have been compromised due to security breaches, not necessarily the number of *individuals* affected. Some individuals may be the victims of more than one breach, which would affect the totals. We usually update this list twice each week. (continued)

There is a list of the breaches at the bottom of the article. Here's the first few incidents:

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Feb. 15, 2005 - ChoicePoint (Alpharetta, GA) Bogus accounts established by ID thieves. The initial number of affected records was estimated at 145,000 but was later revised to 163,000. Update (1/26/06): ChoicePoint settled with the Federal Trade Commission for $10 million in civil penalties and $5 million for consumer redress. Update (12/06/06): The FTC announced that victims of identity theft as a result of the data breach who had out-of-pocket expenses can now be reimbursed. The claims deadline is Feb. 4, 2007. 163,000 records at risk Feb. 25 , 2005 - Bank of America (Charlotte, NC) Lost backup tape 1,200,000 records at risk Feb. 25, 2005 - PayMaxx (Miramar, FL) Exposed online 25,000 records at risk March 8, 2005 - DSW/Retail Ventures (Columbus, OH) Hacking 100,000 records at risk March 10, 2005 - LexisNexis (Dayton, OH) Passwords compromised Update (06/30/06): Last week, five men were arrested in connection with this breach. 32,000 records at risk March 11, 2005 - Univ. of CA, Berkeley (Berkeley, CA) Stolen laptop 98,400 records at risk March 11, 2005 - Boston College (Boston, MA) Hacking 120,000 records at risk (continued) TOTAL number of records containing sensitive personal information involved in security breaches 100,178,801