12.5 Million Hit By Bank Data Breach
August 29, 2008 | by Christopher Nickson
Bank of New York Mellon admits a data breach actually affects 12.5 million people, not the 4.5 million it originally reported.
In February the Bank of New York Mellon lost a number of unencrypted tapes containing details of customers, including names, address, Social Security numbers and birth dates. At the time it said 4.5 million customers has been affected, and in May Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell announced a probe into the data breach.
Now, according to Reuters, the bank has admitted the real figure of those involved in 12.5 million, making it the largest US data breach this year.
In a statement, Gov. Rell said:
"The vast dimensions of this data breach affect not only hundreds of thousands of individuals and businesses in Connecticut, but millions across our nation."
Bank of New York Mellon, which is one of the world’s biggest asset manages and the largest custodial bank, is notifying customers of the breach. It says there has been no evidence that the data has fallen into criminal hands, but it’s offering $25,000 of identity theft insurance and free credit monitoring to customers.
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Benjamin Wright on Aug 29th, 2008 at 8:52 AM:
Christopher: For months I have posted a question on my blog: Has there ever been a documented example of identity theft committed as the result of lost backup tapes? So far, no one has shown me an example. As we saw with TJX and Best Western, it is easy to blow apparent data breaches out of proportion. What do you think? --Ben http://hack-igations.blogspot.com/2007/12/does-los...