Data breaches can occur by theft or loss of files or laptops, hackers, or data accidentally made public. I have been a victim once of a data breach against my health plan provider.

This week, I asked NewsDash readers, what activities do you do online via your computer/laptop or mobile phone, and have you been the victim of a data breach?

Nearly 93% of responding readers indicated they shop online or via their mobile phone, while 87.5% said they book travel this way, and 84% perform banking transactions this way. Nearly 79% pay bills online or via their mobile phone, 75% perform retirement account transactions, and nearly 70% post or send photos. Forty-eight percent check medical records or communicate with their doctors online or via mobile phones, and 23% admitted to using public WiFi hotspots for work.

Nearly 45% of responding readers have been the victim of a data breach, 39% have not, and 16% are unsure if they have. Seventy-nine percent of respondents admitted they have their passwords for different site or applications written down somewhere, while 21% do not.

Perhaps the small number of respondents who chose to give verbatim responses is an indication that people want to keep their information about information security private. Those who did respond shared how they were a victim of a breach, expressed concern about information security and data breaches, and offered ideas for keeping track of all the many passwords we are expected remember. Editor’s Choice goes to the reader who said: “Can’t do anything without a user ID and password these days. To make them different or to consistently change them is arduous at best. Considering cash based consumerism all over again—but will I be able to give up the points?”

Verbatim

HACKERS ARE IN SAME CATEGORY AS TERRORISTS AS FAR AS I AM CONCERNED.

Can't do anything without a user ID and password these days. To make them different or to consistently change them is arduous at best. Considering cash based consumerism all over again - but will I be able to give up the points.

It's bad enough when you choose to provide your data, but more and more businesses are requiring inappropriate data to do business. A number of them are now requiring that you permit them to scan your driver's license in order to do a return, even with a receipt. Have they learned nothing from all the recent retail data breaches? We should be allowed to keep our data private!

I try to do as little as possible online and only through sites I already know and didn't have issues with prior to all this breach of data going on. I am not too lazy or too easily bored to do business personally and directly and prefer human interaction to technology that is only understood by experts (kids and young people).

I have at least 29 different log in's for work related access. This doesn't include the employee side of these websites for my personal access. I tried doing it all from memory but found myself constantly requesting a new password. For a while I had this list saved on our network thinking that was the safest place to store it. That is until I couldn't remember the log in information for our remote access while hundreds of miles away from the office. Now it's saved in a safe place where I can access it without being connected to our network. I pray for single sign on but doubt we'll see it anytime soon.

while I shop, bank, pay bills, etc. on line but only on secure internet connections. I will be out of the country for over three weeks very shortly and I am paying my bills in advance so I don't have to access my bank account while overseas. We were hacked in Egypt a few years ago and learned our lesson.

Our culture needs to go back a few years to learn integrity and honesty. I know there are always those who are dishonest, but our culture seems to be thriving on doing the least to get the most at other's expense!

My husband and I use LastPass to create and store passwords for various sites.

I am very concerned about how accessible all of our data is.

Data was breach happened at Target.

To my knowledge, I've not been the victim of a data breach, but it may just not be obvious yet.

I don't have passwords written down, but I do have them saved and encrypted in an electronic file. Also, for all the security profile questions; 1st car, dog's name, mother's maiden name, etc., I use a standard set of fictitious responses.

I do not "write down" passwords … however, I have a secured program (with a master password) in Apple's FileVault. It has all my passwords in it.

Why can't I "turn off" my credit so that no one can apply for credit in my name? When I do want a loan, I can call the three big credit monitors and get my credit turned back on. Then I should be able to turn it off again after the loan is secured.

Scary