Data breaches of personal information continued to grow in number and size in 2012 and 2013 at businesses and governmental agencies in the United States. Throughout 2012, major companies suffered hacking attacks compromising the security of personal data in their possession. Such companies included Global Payments, Inc. in March (at least 1.5 million card numbers), Linkedln in June (6.4 million user passwords), Barnes & Noble in September (credit card information taken from sixty-three stores), and Nationwide Mutual Insurance in October (1.1 million accounts). Significant breaches continued in early 2013, with Schnucks announcing in March that 2.4 million debit and credit cards used at seventy-nine stores may have been compromised. Government agencies were not immune-in October 2012, the state of South Carolina announced hackers had stolen 3.6 million Social Security numbers and 387,000 credit/debit card numbers from its Department of Revenue, seemingly affecting more than 75 percent of the state's population.
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