A new year and an old story: Americans fall prey to data theft. A new year and another old story: Congress does nothing about it, not even requiring companies to inform consumers of the breaches. According to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, 2005 saw more than 100 reported breaches involving the personal data of more than 50 million Americans. Most of the breaches occurred after Congress got riled at ChoicePoint in February and swore action to protect consumers. This year, although barely two weeks old, ID thieves are already off to a rousing start. Breaches have already been reported at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, H&R Block and the Atlantis hotel in the Bahamas. In the absence of action by Congress, the Atlantis breach represents a new, more ominous threat: data breaches on foreign soil. While details of the breach are still sketchy, more than 50,000 personal records are in ID thieves' hands, including names, addresses, credit card numbers, driver's license numbers and bank account data. Read the entire article here, http://www.crime-research.org/news/15.01.2006/1762/