We've noted in the past that it's become somewhat standard for any company who has lost the private data of its customers/employees/partners/etc. to agonize for a little while and then offer one year of free credit monitoring as an apology. Apparently that formula has reached such a point that companies are doing it automatically. This way, the press can simply combine two stories into one. Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey loses a laptop with data on 30,000 members? No big deal. With the announcement they immediately offer a year of free credit monitoring and everyone can forget about it and move on. At this point, you have to assume that anyone storing personal data is starting to mentally price in the cost of a single year's free credit monitoring as a cost of doing business. It's certainly cheaper than actually securing your data.

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