California steaming: Breaches threaten 18.5 million Californians' data

CYBER BREACH TARGET: A Home Depot store in Silver Spring, Maryland. US home improvement chain Home Depot said September 2, 2014 it was investigating a possible attempt to hack its computer systems that may have targeted customer data

Cyber intrusions and other data breaches put the personal records of 18.5 million Californians, nearly half the state's population, at risk in 2013, a seven-fold increase over the year before, the state attorney general reported.

The number of data breaches reported by companies and government entities increased 28%, from 131 in 2012 to 167 last year, more than half of them, or 53%, caused by cyber incursions such as computer hacking and malware, the report said.