Another Bank Loses Customer Data, 4.5 Million Affected

Computerworld reports that officials at the Bank of New York Mellon Corp. are confirming the loss of a box of unencrypted data storage tapes holding personal information of more than 4.5 million individuals.

The bank informed the Connecticut State Attorney General's Office that the tapes belonging to its BNY Mellon Shareowner Services division were lost in transport by off-site storage firm Archive America on Feb. 27. The missing backup tapes include names, birth dates, Social Security numbers, and other personal information from customers of BNY Mellon and the People's United Bank in Bridgeport, Conn., according to a statement by Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.

"We'd like to provide people with a more current characterization [of what happened], but we are not yet in a position to make that available," said BNY Mellon spokesman Ron Sommer. "Our intention is to make it available as soon as we can."

Attorney General Blumenthal said that the bank's offer of a year of free credit monitoring to those affected by the breach is "grossly inadequate." He also slammed the bank for not promptly notifying customers of the security breach.

Source: Computerworld.com