Those incidents include an e-mail that was sent to 1,537 individuals on Dec. 17, 2004 that contained, as an attachment, a database containing the Social Security numbers and other personal information of those 1,537 individuals. In response to the incident, the department sent a letter of apology to all of the individuals involved and developed additional security training.

On Feb. 24, 2005, a system containing research data was compromised by someone cracking a password or a user account and installing hacking software, the report said. The department said no information was compromised, but the intruder had read/write access to the server and was able to open access points. In response, the department disabled the log-in account that was cracked and limited access to the building.

The Department of Commerce reported 297 incidents involving the loss or compromise of personal information, the report said. The department said 217 laptops containing sensitive data have been lost, stolen or misplaced. In a separate briefing, the department told members of Congress that since 2001, 1,137 laptops have been stolen, lost or reported missing, according to the report. There is no indication of what steps the department has taken to prevent similar incidents.

The Department of Defense said it had 43 incidents involving the loss or compromise of personal data. For example, on April 5, the department said hackers stole data from its Tricare Management Activity system, including personal data on approximately 14,000 active duty and retired service members and dependents, according to the report. In response to the incident, affected members were notified and new security measures were implemented.

The Department of the Treasury confirmed 340 incidents involving the loss or compromise or sensitive personal information since Jan. 1, 2003. In 336 of those cases, the department couldn't say how many people had been affected, whether those people had been notified or whether any action had been taken to prevent further loss or compromise of its data, the report said.