US data breaches booming in '08

The number of personal information leaks reported in the US this year have already exceeded the total amount in all of 2007, San Diego-based Identity Theft Resource Center said today.

With four months left in 2008, the firm found that 449 US businesses and government agencies have thus far reported lost or stolen customer and employee data

But the agency reckons the actual number is likely higher, due to under-reporting and data loss that affects multiple businesses being reported as a single event. All told, ITRC said its 2008 list represents compromised records of more than 22 million individuals