The news that the number of data breaches in the United
States dropped this year is bittersweet. According to Forbes
Magazine, while fewer breaches have been reported during 2009, the
amount of information exposed has exponentially increased since last year.
The Identity Theft Research Center (ITRC) revealed late last
month that the number of successful security and data breaches in 2009 tallied
435, marking a 50% decrease from 2008. Under different circumstances, those
numbers would be a cause for celebration for the IT security industry, as the
decrease is the first since 2005 when the tallies began. However, the ITRC
reports only signify an even greater need for cyber security and fraud prevention technology than ever before.
The number of personal documents exposed by hackers leapt
from 35 million to 220 million from 2008 to 2009. Forbes reports that nearly all of these records were exposed due to
“super breaches” of Heartland Payment Systems and the National Archive and
Records Administration (NARA). But, this is nowhere near comforting news.
“Super breaches” are the result of more widespread, sophisticated and
intelligent cybercrimes, crimes that demand security attention from both
consumer and corporate America. These crimes overshadow smaller incidents of
data loss, making it easier for quieter crimes to slip through the cracks.