From January until August this year, 449 American businesses, government agencies and schools reported consumer data loss, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center. In contrast, 446 data breaches were recorded by the center for 2007 covering 127 million consumer records. The bulk of the record breach incidents were traced to retail chain TJX, which runs T.J. Maxx outlets. The District of Columbia and 44 states have legislation requiring companies that were victims of data loss to inform their affected clients. But only Maryland, New Hampshire and Wisconsin regularly publish data breach cases in their states online, Foley said. The center said 13 percent of the data breach is done by hacking, 15.6 percent to information theft done by company employees, 21 percent to lost laptops and other digital gadgets, 14 percent accidental publishing of sensitive consumer information and 11 percent breaches done by subcontractors. Source: [1] http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7012070780