Data breaches affected 18.5M Californians in 2013

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Credit cards are often seen as a modern day convenience, but in today's world of data hacking, that convenience favors thieves. Just last year, more than 18.5 million Californians had personal information hacked or stolen.

"That's a 600 percent increase since 2012," California Attorney General Kamala Harris said at a news conference Tuesday.

Forty-one million people were affected around the world. According to the state, 7.5 million Californians were put at risk largely due to two massive retailer breaches at Target and LivingSocial.

The number of reported data breaches is expected to increase by 30 percent this year.

Last month, Home Depot revealed that thieves hacked into 41 million customer accounts. In July, hackers hit financial giant JP Morgan Chase, and 76 million accounts were compromised.

"It means you have to constantly be looking over your shoulder, and there is a burden associated with that. That's time, that's money, that's worry, and quite frankly it undermines consumer confidence in the marketplace," said Norma Garcia, manager of the financial services program at Consumers Union, the group that puts out Consumers Reports magazine.

Garcia says U.S. businesses and credit card companies have failed to upgrade their data protection systems -- solutions that have been around for decades.

"This technology has been available in many parts of the world since the 1990s. We are the last to the party," Garcia said.

Harris wants the California Legislature to provide grants to small- and medium-sized businesses so they can start improving data encryption and protection.

But any talk of legislation requiring businesses to better protect consumer data was not met well by the business community. Officials with the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce said it could be cost prohibitive.

"In the end, a dollar spent on data protection is a dollar spent on not hiring someone, so you always have to strike that balance," said Ruben Gonzalez, senior vice president of the Chamber of Commerce.

As for consumers, the Attorney General's Office suggests you closely monitor your accounts for signs of data theft and use complex and different passwords to access those accounts.