But the decrease in data breaches is deceptive. In fact, the number of personal records that were exposed--data like Social Security numbers, medical records and credit card information tied to an individual--that hackers exposed has skyrocketed to 220 million records so far this year, compared with 35 million in 2008. That represents the largest collection of lost data on record. And the majority of 2009's data loss stems from a single source: credit card processing firm Heartland Payment Systems.
Hackers exposed 220 million data records this year
Posted on Sunday, November 29 2009 @ 2:20 CET by Thomas De MaesschalckForbes reports the number of data leaks in the US roughly halved this year to 435 breaches as of November 17, but the bad news is that the number of personal records that were exposed skyrocketed:
