Not to be alarmist, but WAKE UP, PEOPLE! Our information security is, in many ways, failing. Ask the 11 alleged hackers charged in August with breaking into TJX and other retailers by way of insecure Wi-Fi. Forty million credit and debit card numbers were stolen. Ask the Medicaid claims processor at the outsourcer EDS. In February she pleaded guilty to stealing Social Security numbers and dates of birth, and selling them for use on fake tax returns. Ask the courier hired by the University of Utah Hospital to take backup tapes to offsite storage. One day in June, he used his own car instead of his company’s secured van. The tapes, containing billing data for 2.2 million patients, were stolen from his front seat. Or you could, as we did, ask 7,097 business and technology executives worldwide about their security troubles. In this, our sixth year of conducting the “Global State of Information Security” survey with PricewaterhouseCoopers, we got an earful about the challenges, worries and wins in security technology, process and personnel.