Theft of Personal Data Hits Record

Theft of sensitive personal data such as Social Security and credit card information from corporations, government offices and other institutions hit a record this year, reports AP. One survey found 79 million records compromised in the US—nearly four times as many reported in 2006. Another study cited over 162 million data breaches worldwide this year.

Security experts attribute the increases to the prevalence of wireless networking, and crack, determined hackers. Some see the phenomenon as the unavoidable nature of the technological beast. "Moving forward, more companies are going to have more records, so there will be more records compromised each year," warned one analyst. (More hackers stories.)