While reporting laws and an insatiable appetite by U.S. consumers for privacy-related news keep data breaches in this country on many people’s radar, it’s not just a problem in America. Recent widely reported data breaches in the U.K. and Canada highlight the global nature of the problem. In late November, the British government admitted to the loss of computer disks containing detailed personal information on 25 million of the country’s citizens as well as an unknown number of bank account identifiers. Some analysts described this incident in published reports as potentially the most significant privacy breach of the digital age.
At about the same time, reports from Canada released information about potential data breaches from lost laptops and from hacked computers.
Zeroing In on Toronto
For example, Toronto has one of the highest incidents of laptop theft, according to John Livingston, CEO of Absolute Software, a company that provides software to identify the location of laptops, much like LoJack can identify the location of a car.
“There is a lot of petty crime in the Toronto area,” Livingston says. “We have more stolen laptops [based on the company’s own reports] in Toronto on a prorata basis than anywhere else. Crime rings here target specific buildings.”
For the targeted building, the crime ring members will pose as a cleaning crew to get access, and then they will remove laptops and other materials from offices, according to Livingston. “Laptops are easy targets.”
However, many of the crimes never get much notice outside of the local area, he says, adding that notification laws lag behind those of the U.S. That is also the case in many other parts of the world, according to Livingston and other security experts.
The experts agree that the type and amount of breaches in the rest of the world are on par with those experienced…