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Posted by Monty Solomon on September 20, 2008, 10:13 am
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http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2008/09/19/banks_data_loss_may_hit_4=
00000_mass_customers/
Bank's data loss may hit 400,000 Mass. customers
September 19, 2008
More than 400,000 Massachusetts consumers may have had their personal
information compromised in a data breach at the Bank of New York
Mellon-- twice the number originally reported to state officials,
according to a statement released yesterday by state Attorney General
Martha Coakley.
In May 2008, BNY Mellon disclosed that back-up data storage tapes
containing the information were lost by a third party vendor. At the
time, the company said the breach affected approximately 200,000
Massachusetts customers.
Last month, the bank acknowledged the number could be much larger and
that more than 12 million consumers were affected nationally --
nearly three times the 4.5 million reported in May. In August,
Connecticut authorities said they were conducting an investigation of
the breach and pursuing a possible "substantial" fine from BNY Mellon.
Coakley's office would not comment yesterday on whether it is
conducting an investigation, but a spokeswoman said the increase is
not surprising.
Investigators suspect customer information, including names,
addresses, Social Security numbers, and bank account information
could have been leaked. The firm is providing two years of credit
monitoring services and $25,000 of identity theft insurance for those
clients.
BNY Mellon is sending letters to the second round of consumers, said
a spokesman.
JONNELLE MARTE
=A9 Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
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Posted by T on September 21, 2008, 1:40 pm
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>
>
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2008/09/19/banks_data_loss_may_hit_400000_mass_customers/
>
> Bank's data loss may hit 400,000 Mass. customers
>
> September 19, 2008
>
> More than 400,000 Massachusetts consumers may have had their personal
> information compromised in a data breach at the Bank of New York
> Mellon-- twice the number originally reported to state officials,
> according to a statement released yesterday by state Attorney General
> Martha Coakley.
>
> In May 2008, BNY Mellon disclosed that back-up data storage tapes
> containing the information were lost by a third party vendor. At the
> time, the company said the breach affected approximately 200,000
> Massachusetts customers.
>
> Last month, the bank acknowledged the number could be much larger and
> that more than 12 million consumers were affected nationally --
> nearly three times the 4.5 million reported in May. In August,
> Connecticut authorities said they were conducting an investigation of
> the breach and pursuing a possible "substantial" fine from BNY Mellon.
>
>
Here is what I have trouble undestanding. When a bank screws the pooch
it's fine for the state to go after it, but the individual cannot do so.
Here's my tale of oops. We do nutritional scoring where I work and we
farm the work out to a couple of universities in the area. We found out
that our scoring works were toast because the main database for scores
was on a lapotp being repaired by one universities I.T. department.
Then of course there's the demand draft system in banks. It's so open
that I'm surprised more people don't exploit it.
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Posted by Gordon Burditt on September 23, 2008, 8:04 am
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>http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2008/09/19/banks_data_loss_may_hit_400000_mass_customers/
>>
>> Bank's data loss may hit 400,000 Mass. customers
>>
>> September 19, 2008
>>
>> More than 400,000 Massachusetts consumers may have had their personal
>> information compromised in a data breach at the Bank of New York
>> Mellon-- twice the number originally reported to state officials,
>> according to a statement released yesterday by state Attorney General
>> Martha Coakley.
>>
>> In May 2008, BNY Mellon disclosed that back-up data storage tapes
>> containing the information were lost by a third party vendor. At the
>> time, the company said the breach affected approximately 200,000
>> Massachusetts customers.
This breach was not limited to bank account holders. The Bank of
New York Mellon Shareowner Services provides shareholder services
for various companies, and runs a web site where shareholders can
track their account, enter change of address, set up dividend
reinvestment, receive electronic 1099s and stockholder reports,
sell shares, etc. Some of that data was possibly lost also (I know
because I'm on the list and I was notified in June 2008 by one of
the companies I have stock in, passing along a letter from BNY
Mellon about the breach).
What the thieves might have gotten: Name, address, SSN, company
names and quantity of shares for a few companies I own stock in
(and they could calculate the value of my holdings, which wasn't
much). It was claimed they DIDN'T get passwords for the web site
so changing my password wasn't an issue. I suppose a clever crook
could use the password to steal my stock (change address to his own
PO box, sell stock, ask for payment by check, forge check), but
changing the address would trigger postal mail to the *old* address.
I moved all of the stock out of that account. The data breach
wasn't the only reason, but it was significant. I was not real
impressed by the (in)security of moving stock from one account to
another, either.
They gave me Triple Alert credit monitoring for either 1 or 2 years
depending on which version you believe. The first failure, IMHO:
Triple Alert didn't alert me that a fraud alert had been placed on
my credit file (yes, by me, but apparently that's not "negative
information"). NOT getting such an alert made me think that placing
the alert hadn't worked.
So far there has been no evidence of misuse of my information,
unless you count criminal negligence on the part of those who
were supposed to have it.
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