Ever wonder how many electronic records have been breached? The answer — about one-half billion in the last five years And those are the ones we know about.

The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse keeps track of breaches by pulling together information from a variety of sources. They keep a running report on their Web site. It’s updated twice a week.

The report is not for the faint-of-heart.

The half-billion breaches have come through a total of 1,699 incidents where databases have been compromised — hacked, lost, stolen, or otherwise accessed without proper authorization.

Vermont is one of seven states that maintains a centralized database of reported breaches. You can access Vermont information through the Open Security Foundation’s Dataloss DB. Click on the Vermont icon. Currently, 23 incidents have been reported to the state Attorney General’s office.