Javelin Strategy & Research announced its latest report, 2007 Card Issuers’ Identity Safety Scorecard, an annual ranking and study of the top 25 U.S. banks in areas of identity fraud prevention, detection and resolution. This year, financial institutions showed strength in resolution practices, but vulnerability in prevention and detection. Javelin analysts recommend that banks provide more account monitoring tools to its customers and empower them to “watch and catch” identity fraud earlier.

Views of the future always begin with a hard look at the present and its birth mother — the past. So where do we stand in this winter of 2008? At a precipice, watching dramatic trends play out.

The per-compromised customer cost of data breaches rose to $197 in 2007 from $182 in 2006, primarily due to lost business opportunity and average total per-incident costs in 2007 rose to $6.3 million from $4.8 million the previous year.

by Nicholas Miller, CEO, AirPatrol Corp.

We have all seen the headlines surrounding wireless breaches, the dangers of weak encryption protocols, and hijacked sessions. Insufficient WLAN security has been blamed for the TJX breach of some 94 million consumer credit and debit cards. We have been warned to beware of bogus public hotspots. Moreover, the iPhone, which promised to be the mobile platform of the future, was hacked within days of its debut on the market.