We've long speculated that incidents are under-reported. Social and other media are catalysts for transparency. They may also force organizations to be responsible or accountable. I agree this is a good thing. We may not be able to find a good way to capture real numbers, but I suspect that we have a more accurate picture than we did 10 years ago.

RE: benefits to livelihood. My security consulting didn't suffer while organizations chose not to disclose. The only difference between then and now was a clause in the contract regarding disclosure :-O