With four months left in 2008, the firm found that 449 US businesses and government agencies have thus far reported lost or stolen customer and employee data. All told, ITRC said its 2008 list represents compromised records of more than 22 million individuals — although it calls that number “grossly incomplete” because in about 40 per cent of events the number of records exposed is not reported or fully disclosed. Yet ITRC founder Linda Foley attributes part of the growth to companies becoming more open to reporting data loss and the group’s access to state notification lists.