Blackbaud in the News- NTEN: The Questions Every Nonprofit Should Ask About Sensitive Data

by Jake Marcinko, Manager of Information Security at Blackbaud.

These days, big data breach headlines are becoming almost blasé. We've grown so accustomed to such incidents that the mere threat of a data breach no longer carries the weight and urgency that it once did.

Many privacy experts argue that the recent decline in reported data breaches (498 in 2009 versus 657 in 2008 (PDF)) is not due to an improvement in data security practices, but rather that fewer organizations are publicly reporting such breaches. It is even more difficult to determine the total number of individuals affected by data breaches in 2009. The Identity Theft Research Center estimates that approximately 222 million records were compromised as a result of data breaches in 2009. That statistic becomes meaningless, however, when you consider that 52% of all data breaches that were publicly reported in 2009 did not state the number of records exposed. Therefore, no one really knows how many Americans have--or could--become victims of identity theft as a result of these incidents.

The lack of greater public outcry regarding the volume of data breaches is perplexing when you consider recent poll data from Gallup and Unisys. According to an October 2009 Gallup poll, 66% of all U.S. adults worry "frequently" or "occasionally" about being the victim of identity theft. The issue of identity theft ranks higher among poll participants than the issues of terrorism, burglary, sexual assault and murder. In fact, according to the latest Unisys Security Index, Americans are more concerned about identity theft than they are about H1N1 or even their ability to meet their financial obligations.

So why isn't more being done and what does this have to do with nonprofits?

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