There’s a sobering new report out by the Identity Theft Resource Center that says data/security breaches are on pace to set a record this year.

From Jan. 1 to June 27, the pace of breaches is 69 percent higher than during the same period of last year. The group, which follows breaches reported by newspapers, state governments and other sources, says there were 342 breaches during that period. That does not, however, reflect the true volume of breach activity.

The actual number of breaches is more than likely higher, due to underreporting, and the fact that some of the breaches reported, which affect multiple businesses, are listed as a single event. The BNY Mellon and SunGard data exposures are examples of these “multiple” events. In one case, the customers and/or employees of at least 45 “entities” were affected by a breach that the ITRC reported as a single event.

I was talking to someone for a story late last week. This fellow insisted that he would never use online banking because he just doesn’t trust it. I suspect he’ll see something like this and feel even more sure of himself.

What do you think? How safe is all that personal data (social security numbers, credit card data, etc.) we have stored with our banks, doctors and businesses?