Consumers should always be vigilant when it comes to keeping private information private, but as we all know, we can't completely prevent identity theft ourselves because we can't control how the companies and people we work with handle our information. Data breaches are primary examples of situations beyond the consumer's control. And according to the Identity Theft Resource Center, it's a growing problem. The ITRC Data Breach Report for 2008 reached 342 (between January 1 and June 27), which is 69% higher than the same period in 2007. The number may actually be higher since some companies don't report breaches and some single breaches affect more than one company.
The list is further broken down into subcategories such as government/military agencies, educational institutions, general businesses, health care companies, and banking/credit/financial services. The Identity Theft Resource Center has made its data breach reports available in pdf format for consumers to read.
Obviously, when companies report these breaches, they don't know whether or not the information has been used for identity theft or not. If a company you do business with announces a data breach, it would be a good to monitor your credit reports for several months just in case your information has been used fraudulently.
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