IN BRIEF

NEW YORK

Data thefts soar to new high in 2007

The loss or theft of personal data such as credit card and Social Security numbers soared to unprecedented levels in 2007, and the trend isn't expected to turn around anytime soon as hackers stay a step ahead of security and laptops disappear with sensitive information.

And while companies, government agencies, schools and other institutions are spending more to protect ever-increasing volumes of data with more sophisticated firewalls and encryption, the investment often is too little too late.

"More of them are experiencing data breaches, and they're responding to them in a reactive way, rather than proactively looking at the company's security and seeing where the holes might be," said Linda Foley, who founded the San Diego-based Identity Theft Resource Center after becoming an identity theft victim herself.

Foley's group lists more than 79 million records reported compromised in the United States through Dec. 18. That's a nearly fourfold increase from the nearly 20 million records reported in all of 2006.

Another group, Attrition.org, estimates more than 162 million records compromised through Dec. 21 -- both in the U.S. and overseas, unlike the other group's U.S.-only list. Attrition reported 49 million last year.

"It's just the nature of business, that moving forward, more companies are going to have more records, so there will be more records compromised each year," said Attrition's Brian Martin.

PHOENIX

US Airways sees shares take nosedive

US Airways Group is eager to ring in the new year after getting beat up on Wall Street in 2007.

Though the company consistently surpassed analysts' earnings expectations, shares for the Tempe, Ariz.-based carrier have taken a 12-month nose dive. By December, investors saw their stock drop three-quarters in value.

US Airways shares reached a 52-week low of $14.41 from a high of $62.50, while the AMEX Airline Index of major carriers fell to $34.29 from a high of $66.92.

Surging oil prices are certainly to blame for sinking US Airways stock along with every other airline. But the carrier also endured a regular stream of bad news as management struggled to combine operations two years after America West Airlines bought the former US Airways.

In January, US Airways whiffed on a hostile bid for Delta Air Lines. Then check-in kiosks temporarily failed in March as the company combined reservations systems, and a spring ice storm stranded thousands of passengers.

Internet sales show slowest rise on record

Internet sales by U.S. retailers rose at the slowest pace on record as $3-a-gallon gasoline and rising mortgage defaults weighed on holiday spending.

Online spending from Nov. 1 through Dec. 27 increased 19 percent to almost $28 billion, from $24 billion a year earlier, Reston, Va-based ComScore said Sunday in a statement. Sales growth trailed last year's 26 percent.

Discounts by Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, and Best Buy Co., the biggest U.S. consumer electronics chain, weren't enough to get consumers to loosen spending.

"Uppermost on the mind of consumers was the price tag," Kurt Barnard, president of Barnard's Retail Forecasting in Nutley, N.J, said.