When will we have laws to impose strict fines for companies that are so careless with consumers personal information?

Personal information on about 650,000 customers of J.C. Penney and up to 100 other retailers could be compromised after a computer tape went missing.

GE Money, which handles credit card operations for Penney and many other retailers, said Thursday night that the missing information includes Social Security numbers for about 150,000 people.

The information was on a backup computer tape that was discovered missing last October. It was being stored at a warehouse run by Iron Mountain Inc., a data storage company, and was never checked out but can’t be found either, said Richard C. Jones, a spokesman for GE Money, part of General Electric Capital Corp.

What is really absurd is the fact that GE Money knew about this since last October and it is just now being reported. If someone did steal that computer then they have had a three month head start on destroying people’s credit.