What can organizations and businesses do to ensure adequate data security for their members and customers? What can consumers do to protect themselves if their personal information has been compromised?

Electronic payment systems and databases are essential for today’s competitive marketplace. Databases are essential for government and not-for-profit entities, too. But they can also create problems for organizations and individuals. Individuals ranging from military veterans to TJ Maxx shoppers may suffer from identity theft following significant security breaches. Some data security breaches occur from sloppy security practices, ranging from laptops being stolen to high-tech electronic capture of information from companies’ data systems. While you’ve no doubt seen headlines of large security breaches involving millions of personal and financial files, small business are just as vulnerable. A recent examination of 500 security breach cases concluded that more than half occurred in the retail and food-and-beverage industries. The same study concluded that in 90 percent of the cases, data breaches could have been prevented by using adequate security measures.