"To the best of our knowledge, this is not a hack of Monster's security, rather, legitimate customer credentials are being used to log in to the database, " said Patrick Manzo, vice president of compliance and fraud prevention at Monster.

BBC: NEWS | Technology | Monster attack steals user data

Taking that proposal a step further, he suggests that Uncle Sam could adopt a system similar to California's "ReadyReturn" program, where taxpayers can log on to a database and see the government's estimate for their tax returns based on historical and wage information.

FORBES: In The Future, Tax Filing Will Be Easy

Point it at a site or an entire domain, such as .edu, and it generates a list of e-mails, log-in screens, database errors and source code, all of which are classic ways to gain entry onto a server.

FORBES: Google Me Not

Just the real grunt work of log file or sensor processing before loading into an analytic database like Vertica.

FORBES: Connect

The two million people already signed up to the London 2012 ticketing database will receive information about how to apply, with registered users being able to use their existing log-in details.

BBC: London 2012 Olympic tickets on sale 15 March