Payment card breaches in 2008 led to the most compromises and security breaches of record in the last four years, according to a new report from Verizon Business. Last year, 295 million records were compromised and 90 breaches were confirmed, Verizon Business's 2009 Data Breach Investigations Report found.

The top five breaches accounted for 93 percent of total records compromised and as a percentage of caseload, 80 percent were payment card breaches, while payment card data represented 98 percent of all records compromised last year. PIN data was increasingly targeted in 2008 in attacks in which magnetic-stripe data and PIN data was used for identity fraud. Criminals used the data to make ATM withdrawals from victim's accounts.