Besides TJX's problem, major 2007 breaches include lost data disks with bank account numbers in Britain, a hacker attack of a U.S.-based online broker's database and a con that spilled resume contact information from a U.S. online jobs site.

Getting accurate statistics on data breaches is difficult because of non-standardized reporting. The AP story cites 2 different groups that track data breaches, Theft Resource Center and Attrition.org, who acknowledge difficulties:

Both groups acknowledge many breaches may be missing from their lists, because they largely count incidents reported in news media that they consider credible. Media coverage has risen in part because of the growing number of states requiring businesses and institutions to publicly disclose data losses. Thirty-seven states, plus Washington D.C., now have such requirements.

Even without precise numbers we can get a sense of the trends on data breaches and it isn't looking good. A year from now the 2008 numbers may look even worse but without an obvious, big case like TJX, we may not know if there was a real jump or whether better reporting is the contributing factor.