Towards a Model for Data Breaches: An Universal Problem for the Public

Abstract

Abstract

The topic of data breaches, protection of information and data security salient to business and criminal justice researchers, practitioners in all profit and nonprofit organizations, consumer advocate groups and legislators throughout the world. This article analyzes the trends in data breaches in the United States and classifies them into five general industry sectors and eighteen sub-sectors using a new model recently developed by the authors and also provides basic recommendations for information and security personnel in every industry throughout the world to use to improve data protection and thus help protect public information for consumers and all types of organizations. The 2,280 data breaches tracked by the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse from 2005 through 2010 were used in the study. The findings indicate that the trends for the annual number of data breaches for the five general industries and their sub-sectors have increased, although inconsistently, over the six-year period. The analysis and classification of data breaches by general and sub-sector industries with the use of this new data breach model provides an awareness of the data breach problem for information managers and security personnel in public and private sector organizations throughout the world and also provides a workable methodological framework to help them develop innovative and useful policies for safeguarding personal information of consumers, clients, employees and other entities. The topic of data breaches and information management remains salient to business and criminal justice researchers, practitioners in all profit and nonprofit organizations, consumer advocate groups and legislators throughout the world.

Keywords – Data breaches, public information, data protection, identity theft.