The TJX Companies, UCLA, Boeing, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), ChoicePoint, Bank of America, DSW Shoe Warehouse and T-Mobile.  These are just a few of the entities hit in recent years with high-profile data breaches, and they surely won’t be the last organizations to fall victim to such incidents.  Indeed, security breaches are as common in today’s business landscape as bad coffee and briefcases.  And the potential value to fraudsters of such information as names, social security numbers, dates of birth, addresses and the like—the key ingredients in the ID theft recipe—will keep thieves and criminals crawling back for more like spiders to the web.

Whether you and your enterprise have already experienced a data breach and know all too well how to put out the associated fires, or you think you’ve got the most secure systems in all of IT land, the following resources are sure to help you respond to and better prepare yourself for that inevitable data breach.

Bookmark this page because you never know when you’re valuable data is going to turn up in hands of someone you wouldn’t trust with your daily garbage. 

Check out our CIO News Alerts and Tech Informer pages for updated news coverage.

Editor’s Picks:

When the Dike Breaks: Responding to the Inevitable Data Breach (CSO magazine feature article)

Attorneys John Hutchins and Charles Palmer offer advice on how to be ready for a data breach.

Avoid a Meltdown: Reacting to a Security Breach (CSO magazine feature article)

How your company handles a data breach can make the difference between survival and extinction.  Here’s how to ensure you’re organization is ready to react.

How to Minimize the Impact of Laptop Theft (CIO.com column)

Here are three simple steps that can reduce your risk of confidential data loss and streamline remediation in the event of laptop theft or loss.

Get Smarter About Security Risks (CIO magazine column)

How much you should invest in protecting corporate data depends on how good you are at assessing the threat.  Here’s how to assess your risk intelligence.

Managing Reputation (CSO magazine column)

The CSO role has risen to the top of the corporation, and with that rise has come personal risk. Here’s a look at the corporate and personal risks associated with data security breaches, and what savvy CSOs and CISOs can do to protect their companies and their reputations.

TJX Breach: Why This One’s Different (CIO.com blog post)

Banks have linked fraudulent credit card purchases to the security breach at TJX, during which hackers nabbed possibly millions of credit card numbers. Many security experts say that matching a specific incident of credit card fraud to a specific security breach is unprecedented.