Publisher's Synopsis
Most Americans have been alarmed by the recent data breaches at Target, Neiman Marcus, and Michaels stores. The investigations into those cyber attacks are ongoing. But they have compromised the privacy and security of millions of American consumers-potentially putting one in three Americans at risk of identity theft and other cyber crimes. public confidence is crucial to our economy. If we do not have faith in businesses' ability to protect their personal information, then our economic recovery is going to falter. And in the digital age, major data breaches involving our private information are not uncommon. There have been significant data breaches involving Sony, Epsilon, and Coca-Cola, but also in Federal Government agencies-the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Energy. There have also been data breaches at Yahoo! and White Lodging, which is the hotel management company for national hotel chains such as Marriott and Starwood. In fact, according to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, more than 662 million records have been involved in data breaches since 2005.
