So far, American companies including financial services giants like
> Bank of America, Citigroup and MasterCard, and national retailers like
> DSW shoes and Ralph Lauren Polo, have announced data compromises. All
> told, the personal information of more than 50 million consumers has
> been lost, stolen and even sold to thieves.
I think this analysis is missing the forest for the trees. The larger failure is that the validity of our identity is being held in the secrecy of a few numbers rather than a challenge-response system.
If a challenge-response system were in place for the approval of credit card transactions (and applicaitons for new credit, changes of address, etc.), things like credit card nubmers would rapidly lose their value as a target for thieves.
--phil