Business Week Online
Howard A. Schmidt
September, 23, 2005

Over the last decade, the Internet and automated financial systems have rapidly changed the accessibility and productivity of critical systems we depend on every day. As consumers, we purchase goods from distant merchants, renew automobile registration with the state, register for classes and check bank account balances -- all the while placing immense trust in vendors to keep our sensitive personal data secure.

However, recent high-profile security lapses, including the reported theft of over 40 million credit card records from a processing service, have begun to make us all acutely aware that personal information -- including names, Social Security/national ID numbers, dates of birth, and credit card numbers -- may not always have adequate levels of protection in place to ensure security while being collected, shared, and stored by merchants, data brokers, government entities and uncountable businesses and non-profit organizations.

Read the entire article here.