• Techdirt, Tuesday, April 27, 2010 9:47 AM

Since 2005, there have been a least 358.4 million digital data breaches that resulted in the loss of U.S. consumers' personal information, according to new research from The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. Keep in mind that 358.4 million is just a minimum, since there are plenty of leaks that have lost an unknown number of records (like the one from a closed-down Hollywood Video store in Nevada, where customer records were thrown in a dumpster then scattered by the wind)," notes Tech Dirt.

So why don't we hear as much about record-breaking data breaches these days. "That's not because they've stopped," says the blog. "It's just that they happen so often, they're really not all that newsworthy any more ... A lot of lip service gets paid to clamping down on fraud, but it really doesn't seem like much goes on to stop data leaks, since the penalties for the leaks are toothless and are cheaper than any real prevention."

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