There are some rough estimates of the scope of identity theft, for the first three months of 2008. Brian Krebs has a very good summary at the Washington Post:

“At least 8.3 million personal and financial records of consumers were potentially compromised by data spills or breaches at businesses, universities and government agencies in the first quarter of 2008, according to statistics released today.”

link: 8.3 Million Records Spilled in Data Breaches This Year

As the article mentions, there are many reasons why this number may be an underestimate. Some states do not have legislation to mandate reporting. A security breach may be not report the full scope of the breach, as in the T.J. Maxx / Marshalls incident. And there is one other factor to considered. It is only early April and some data breaches that have happened in the first quarter of this year have yet to be detected. So, most likely, this eight million plus figure is a low estimate.

Catherine Forsythe
Director of Operations
FlyingHamster: http://flyinghamster.com/

Tags: legislation, data breach, privacy, security, identity theft, t.j. maxx, brian krebs