In December last year an ominous milestone was passed in the US. Announcements from the UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles), Aetna, the big US insurance group, and aerospace giant Boeing took the total number of records compromised in data breaches since the infamous ChoicePoint breach nearly two years ago past the 100m mark.

The total – highlighted by Kevin Poulsen, a senior editor for Wired News in his online blog – underscored the growing problem of securing customer and other records in the digital world. The differing circumstances surrounding these three incidents also highlighted the range of risks facing corporate and other organisations as they battle to secure this data.