FTC tells us that reported identity thefts are down while USA Today tells us the theft of personal i

The FTC has recently said that the number of identity theft reports has dropped.  Yet in today's(Dec 10th 2007) Money section of USA Today we are told that personal information thefts have more than tripled this year.  Attrition.org reported some 300 information security breaches. 

The good old U.S. of A. is leading the way with 261 of those breaches
Great Britain-16
Canada-15
Japan-6
Australia-2
The countries of Denmark, Ireland, Sweden and Norway-1

So according to the FTC the problem seems to be lessening but on the other hand attrition.org has told us of all these breaches.  We do need to be worried about identity theft.  Since it is pretty much common knowledge that companies will pay for 1-2 years of credit monitoring using recently stolen identities would be a stupid move on the part of an identity thief.  Let them sit for a while then release them in say 2010 and no one will realize that they are the identities which were stolen in 2007.

For more information on that read my blog "Some things get better with age".   Having  your own identity restoration and credit monitoring service is vital if you've ever done business with a company that has experienced a breach.  The true danger is not the day after the breach but years down the line.