The past year brought an alarming rise in the number of large-scale data breaches at major institutions such as universities and hospitals. It seemed as though just about every week, the same story appeared in the news, describing the latest institution to have seen its electronic records compromised.
But without a centrally managed clearinghouse for information about individual data breaches, and reporting requirements for large institutions, the true extent of the problem is impossible to know, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center.
The nonprofit group claims that while many breaches likely go unreported, a majority of those that are disclosed offer an incomplete picture of the extent of the incident. eSecurity Planet has the story on ITRC’s report and its pitch for a centralized, nationwide data breach registry.
A total of 662 significant data breaches were reported in the U.S. in 2010, up 33 percent from 2009, but that’s probably only the tip of the iceberg, according to a new report from the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC).
While this sharp increase is both disturbing and costly, ITRC officials said the bigger concern is the fact that there’s currently no centralized, publicly available data breach reporting site or repository available to consumers or businesses that want to ascertain exactly how much and what type of data has been compromised in these ever-increasing breaches.
