Record Data Breaches in 2007 -Are you ready for 2008?

The loss or theft of personal data such as credit card and Social Security numbers soared to unprecedented levels in 2007, and the trend isn't expected to turn around anytime soon as hackers stay a step ahead of security and laptops disappear with sensitive information.

And while companies, government agencies, schools and other institutions are spending more to protect ever-increasing volumes of data with more sophisticated firewalls and encryption, the investment often is too little too late.

"More of them are experiencing data breaches, and they're responding to them in a reactive way, rather than proactively looking at the company's security and seeing where the holes might be," said Linda Foley, who founded the San Diego-based Identity Theft Resource Center after becoming an identity theft victim herself.

Foley's group lists more than 79 million records reported compromised in the United States through Dec. 18. That's a nearly fourfold increase from the nearly 20 million records reported in all of 2006. MORE

Since our sensitive information is out there -everywhere...the only thing we can to do avoid becoming a victim of fraud is to take steps to prevent it and lessen the impact if/when it happens!

Here are a few links to various services and products that can help you protect your information and prevent loss:

DIFRwear.com: Radio Frequency Identification blocking products, protect your personal information in wallet and passport from being read by criminals with RFID readers
See: RFID Technology...Will it Affect you?

LifeLock.com They will set and renew your fraud alerts, remove you from marketing lists and will replace all contents of your wallet if stolen. They have a $1,000,000.00 guarantee that promises to "fix" any problems and losses incurred, if you become a victim while subscribing to their services. Use the above link for an instant %20 discount -courtesy of LifeLock See: Do you know what steps to take...?

MyLapTopsGPS.com
Another laptop is stolen every 12 seconds. If yours is next, MyLaptopGPS™ first tracks it worldwide via the Internet, then silently removes your important files and returns them to you, all right under the thief's nose. See: Laptop theft on the rise! GPS for laptops...who knew?