After having discovered wide-ranging data breaches at companies, schools and local governments, whereby employees have supposedly been swapping music, software and movie files over the Internet, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Monday said that it has sent notifications to almost 100 organizations.

Saying that the data - including health and financial details and Social Security and driver’s license numbers - from the networks of the affected private and public entities has been found on peer-to-peer file-sharing networks, the FTC added that the outflow of sensitive information about customers and employees can likely be used for committing crimes like identity fraud and corporate spying, among others.

Noting that the organizations that have been sent the letters include those with as few as eight employees as well as those with tens of thousands employees, the FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said in a news release: “Unfortunately, companies and institutions of all sizes are vulnerable to serious P2P-related breaches, placing consumers' sensitive information at risk.”

Leibowitz added: “Companies should take a hard look at their systems to ensure that there are no unauthorized P2P file-sharing programs and that authorized programs are properly configured and secure.”

Along with suggesting that the recipients of the notifications review their security practices, the FTC has also launched separate investigations into the file-swapping cases of some ‘undisclosed’ companies.