New data breach cases bring total number of victims in 2006 up to 88 million

More bad news about consumer data privacy and security: four new data breach incidents have been reported in the last few days. According to PrivacyRights.org, these new cases bring the total number of data breach victims in America to over 88 million in 2006 so far. Here is the latest news:

110 FTC Records - Two Federal Trade Commission laptops were stolen last week. These computers contained sensitive records on 110 consumers.

3,000 San Francisco State University Records - A laptop containing Social Security numbers and other records for 3,000 current and former students was stolen from a faculty member's car. Apparently, this practice of faculty members carrying around student data is "very common."

23,000 USDA Records - A hacker gained access to USDA computer systems and 23,000 personal records that were used to manage the building access ID cards.

28,000 Navy Records - Social Security numbers and other data on sailors and their families were found posted on a civilian website according to an announcement on Friday.

Four consumer data incidents from four government agencies in one week? 54,110 new consumer records added to the data breach total in just a few days? How many more data breaches need to be in the news before people start encrypting sensitive records?