BUSINESS BRIEFS
For data thieves, a very good year
Associated Press
BOSTON — The loss or theft of personal data such as credit card and Social Security numbers soared to unprecedented levels in 2007, and the trend isn't expected to turn around anytime soon as hackers stay a step ahead of security and laptops disappear with sensitive information.
And while companies, government agencies, schools and other institutions are spending more to protect ever-increasing volumes of data, the investment often is too little too late.
"More of them are experiencing data breaches, and they're responding to them in a reactive way, rather than proactively looking at the company's security and seeing where the holes might be," said Linda Foley, who founded the San Diego-based Identity Theft Resource Center after becoming an identity theft victim.
Foley's group lists more than 79 million records reported compromised in the United States through Dec. 18. That's a nearly fourfold increase from the nearly 20 million records reported in all of 2006.
UNITED PROMISES 'RELIABLE SCHEDULE'
After a holiday week of mass cancellations and delays, United Airlines expects to run normally as the air travel rush winds down today and tomorrow.
"We're in good shape," United Airlines' chief operating officer, Pete McDonald, said in an interview yesterday. "We expect to fly a very reliable schedule."
The airline, the nation's second-largest, insists that bad weather at two of its hubs — Chicago O'Hare and Denver — explain its ragged performance. But the union for its pilots says management bears the blame.
United canceled more than 1,000 flights, or 10 percent of its schedule, over eight days ended at midday yesterday, according to data from performance tracker FlightStats. During the period, just 45 percent of United's flights landed within 15 minutes of schedule.
By contrast, United's biggest rival, American Airlines, canceled 2 percent of flights during the same period and operated 61 percent on time.
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