With the heavy and growing use of credit cards and debit cards on the web, 2007 was a banner year for conducting transactions electronically. But there is a negative side to this growth -- the number of data breaches that left personally-identifiable information vulnerable to theft set a record this year.

The theft of credit card numbers, Social Security numbers and other sensitive personal information that lives in cyberspace soared in 2007, with companies, government agencies, schools and other institutions scrambling to make all that digital information highly secure in the ongoing cat-and-mouse game with hackers and digital information thieves. Yes, even organized crime has heeded the call to steal information with through the internet these days. Surprised? Shouldn't be.

All these entities entrusted with the care of billions of dollars worth of customer information just aren't giving the attention to the problem like they should. Four words: be proactive, not reactive.

Either information thieves are far smarter than "security professionals" who try to keep this information safe from prying eyes, or there is massive incompetence when it comes to information security. With the estimate for stolen customer records sitting at 79 million this year (and even 162 million from another estimate), do you feel safe about your bank account, credit card and investment account information?