In the five minutes it might take to read this article, about 672 electronic records containing confidential information will be compromised. By year's end, more than 72 million records with Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, birth dates and other personal data will have been exposed. That rate is about 200,000 more records per month than last year.
And how was this information exposed?
According to a new study by the University of Washington, Seattle it was internal mistakes. That conclusion is based on a review of 550 security breaches from 1980 to 2006. The study found internal foul-ups such as putting personally identifiable information accidentally online, missing equipment, lost backup tapes or other administrative errors were responsible for 61% of the incidents.
