94 Million Exposed: The Government's Epic Fail on Privacy

Sep. 23, 2012 -- When you hear a number like "94 million" in the news, it's usually because somebody won the lottery. This time around, no such luck. This 94 million is the number of Americans' files in which personal information has been exposed, since 2009, to potential identity theft through data breaches at government agencies. Go ahead, count the zeroes: 94,000,000. That's like releasing the personal data of every man, woman and child in California, Texas, New York, and Ohio.

Believe it or not, this number -- which was just revealed in the latest report from tech security firm Rapid7 -- is only the most conservative estimate. When you take into account the difference between reported data breaches, which is what this report measures, and actual incidents, you are talking about a much, much bigger number. As bad as the numbers are, it gets worse. Much worse. Indeed, the biggest threat doesn't come from smart hackers -- it comes from dumb politicians and bureaucrats.

First, let's consider the scope: The newly released Rapid7 report is based on the list of data breaches compiled by the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a nonprofit privacy advocacy group (and remember, we're only talking about the last three years). According to Rapid7's analysis, government agencies at the local, state and federal level are becoming infinitely more proficient at exposing our personal data, putting more and more of it at risk with each passing year. Government agencies reported that they exposed 1.5 million records containing personally identifiable information (you know, the sensitive stuff: your name, your address, your phone number...) in all of 2010. The following year that total more than doubled, to 4 million. (If you're worried that you're a victim, read this.)