Last week, I got a new debit card in the mail. Why? The letter accompanying the card said the bank had reason to believe the card had been compromised.

This isn’t the first time I’ve received a notice like this. I’m sure you’ve received them as well — from banks, from retailers, from restaurants, all of which have at some point been the victim of hackers.

Recently, we heard about Athens, Ga.-based Zaxby’s alerting diners that their debit and credit card information may have been hacked, possibly allowing thieves access to personal information. Zaxby’s joined Kroger, Best Buy, Five Guys Burgers, DSW and a host of other organizations with similar experiences.

Unfortunately, says security expert Ariel Silverstone, being hacked is increasingly part of the cost of doing business. Several sources estimate that more than 90 percent of companies have been hacked, the remainder, says Silverstone, just don’t know. As an information technology security professional for more than 24 years, Silverstone has seen it all.

"One hundred years or so ago, banks were where the money was, so people were robbing banks. Today, it is so much easier to perform hacks. It is less likely to be caught and the rewards are incredible," Silverstone says.

Only in the last 10 years has the average consumer become aware of hacking, but it has been happening since the mid-1970s, he says.

For the most part, there are three types of hackers: people who do it for fun or reputation, such as those who hijacked Burger King’s Twitter account Monday, those who do it for political reasons, and the most dangerous — the ones who are part of criminal organizations.

An attacker starts with surveillance of the target company, then finds the location of the company’s Web services. One strategy to launch an attack is to craft seemingly legitimate email messages to senior level leaders. When the hacker gets a reply, they have a back door into the system via malware or other mechanisms, Silverstone says.

For companies, keeping up with security breaches and the necessary patches to their systems can be challenging.

Once hackers have found a way into the system, they have access to information they can abuse. They may use it the same day or sell it to criminal exchanges. The going rate is currently 1,000 names and card numbers for $30, Silverstone says.

"One of the things that people need to understand when they share any piece of information on the Internet … is who is on the other side," says Silverstone. The risk is smaller for major companies, he says, but you should be careful which part of your information to share.

Everyone thinks of debit or credit cards, but there are also the security questions that many sites use — some of which are the same from one site to another such as your mother’s maiden name. Once you’ve given that information to one site and a hacker gets it, he or she can use it on other sites to access your accounts.

So what is a trusting consumer to do? Consider with whom you share information. Just as you would think carefully about sharing personal information with another person, do the same with companies. "Don’t just give it all away," says Silverstone.

Use false information. Instead of your mother’s real maiden name, for example, use a different word. Silverstone uses Lastpass.com — a free tool that generates random passwords and remembers them for every site. "I have over 3,000 different passwords and I don’t have to remember them … and I couldn’t because they are random," he says.

Don’t share too much on Facebook. "There are a lot of professionals on the bad side that harvest Facebook for information about you that you may not want shared," Silverstone says.

Never use a debit card. In the U.S., the law limits your personal and financial liability if someone steals and uses your credit card. That isn’t the case with debit cards. If your bank offers one-time use credit cards, those are even better, Silverstone says.

The only other solution is to stop doing business on the Internet altogether, and that, Silverstone says, would be a devastating blow to the U.S. economy.