The latest data breach being reported in the press is nothing short of mind-boggling. Of all the companies out there, you wouldn't expect Equifax, one of the three credit-reporting bureaus in the United States, to be hit by a massive hack, and boy, is this one a doozy: it's compromised the personal information of a whopping 143 million Americans. And it gets worse. Equifax is under fire for waiting six weeks before it notified the public last week. Rather than alerting people who were affected, it set up a website that wasn't available for days. Equifax offered free credit monitoring -- but to add insult to injury, they initially required those who enrolled to waive their right to sue the company. (It later backtracked, allowing people to sue if they sent it written notice within 30 days.) The beleaguered company added that credit card numbers for about over 200,000 people were exposed in the breach, as was "personal identifying information" on over 1...

Its slogan is straightforward: "Life is short. Have an affair." Ashley Madison, whose website boasts it's the "world's leading married dating service for discreet encounters," was breached last month by a group of hackers who now appear to have made good on their threat to post nearly 10 gigabytes' worth of data on the internet. The data includes names, street addresses, and email addresses associated with millions of payment transactions. Investigators say the data -- chunks of it, at least -- appears to be legitimate. Is this the work of karma kicking these adulterers in the behind? Having an affair is, to me, among the most despicable acts a person can commit. The second people even contemplate cheating on their spouse, that's when a serious conversation is in order. If they aren't sure they can remain faithful, they should file for divorce before things snowball out of control. The ramifications are far worse when children are involved....