2006 will be recorded as the year that security breaches reached the consciousness and awareness of the mainstream consumer. Breaches are certainly not a new phenomena, especially to security professionals. Although events in 2005 all made the headlines, such as the ChoicePoint identification theft that affected 163,000 records, the stolen laptop at the University of California, Berkeley, with more than 98,000 records, and the Boeing stolen laptop with Social Security numbers and bank account information of 161,000 people, the data breach incidents in 2006 occurred at an astounding, costly rate and gained much more media attention.
