• Microsoft brushes off claim Xbox Live accounts were compromised

  Microsoft brushed off a dubious hacker's claim on Thursday that he stole 47 million account credentials for Microsoft's Xbox Live gaming service.

• DHS warns employees that years-old database hole puts their privacy at risk

  The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Thursday said it has notified employees and others with DHS clearance to be on alert for potential fraud due to a vulnerability discovered in software used by a vendor to process personally identifiable information (PII) for background investigations. The software hole in had been there since July 2009.

• Twitter aims to become safer with two-step sign-in

  Twitter, in a much-needed move to keep its users safer from cyberattacks, is introducing a more secure login process.

• Yahoo Japan says 22 million user IDs may have been stolen

  Yahoo Japan, the country's largest Web portal, said up to 22 million user IDs may have been leaked during a hack that was discovered last week.

• Payment card processors hacked in $45 million fraud

  A vast debit card fraud scheme that allegedly netted $US45 million has been linked to the hacking of credit card processors in the US and India.

• 10 IT agenda items for the first US CIO

  Obama's appointment of Vivek Kundra marks an important first step for rectifying the nation's concerns about IT.

• When A Company Folds, Who Guards Your Data's Privacy?

  IT and business both understand the need to protect regulated customer and business data -- so long as they're in business, analysts say. Here's a look at how some folding businesses are falling short protecting data and the possible liabilities for the IT group and CIO.

• How to avoid 5 common storage mishaps

  Think you can guess the No. 1 threat to the security of your stored data? If you said hackers, or even trouble-making insiders, you'd be wrong. While malicious threats are an ongoing concern, it's your well-meaning employees who are more likely to unknowingly expose your company's stored data through, say, a file-sharing network or a misplaced laptop.

• Four security lessons from the World Bank breach

  According to a report from Fox News, several servers at the World Bank Group, an organization that offers economic assistance to developing countries around the globe, were repeatedly compromised and breached over the course of the last year.

• Can security's human side stop data breaches?

  Shira Rubinoff was a practicing psychologist in 2004. When it came to technology, her experience was simply as a tech user, certainly not a tech guru. Then one day she was phished.

Whitepapers about data breach

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  2012 Data Breach Investigations Report

  A study conducted by Verizon RISK Team with cooperation from the Australian Federal Police, Dutch National High Tech Crime Unit, Irish Reporting & Information Security Service, Police Central e-Crime Unit and United States Secret Service. This year our DBIR includes more incidents, derived from more contributors, and represents a broader and more diverse geographical scope. The number of compromised records across these incidents skyrocketed back up to 174 million after reaching an all-time low (or high, depending on your point of view) in last year’s report of four million. In fact, 2011 boasts the second-highest data loss total since we started keeping track in 2004. Read this report.