The Bank of New York Mellon lost the confidential details of about 4.5 million customers on 27 February, reports Finextra.
A box containing six to 10 unencrypted back-up tapes containing social security numbers, names and addresses, and possibly bank account numbers and balances became lost in transit according to a statement released by Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut attorney general.
Blumenthal adds that the box was one of 10 being moved by a truck belonging to storage firm Archive Systems. The boxes were assumed to have been transported from BNY Mellon’s shareowner services division to a storage facility. When the truck arrived at the facility one of the boxes was missing.
Blumenthal writes in a letter to Stephen Dolmatch, general counsel, BNY Mellon Shareowner Services, that the bank was told the truck’s lock was broken and the automobile was left unattended “several times.”
“The loss of this tape – so far unrecovered and unremedied – is inexplicable and unacceptable. It must be addressed by protective measures to forestall identity theft immediately,” adds Blumenthal in the letter.
BNY Mellon began notifying its customers of the missing data six weeks ago and is offering them one years worth of credit monitoring through Equifax.
“Given this extraordinarily serious security breach, this offer of protection is grossly inadequate,” says Blumenthal. He has asked BNY Mellon for further details on the breach and what else can be done to protect the affected customers. As well, he is probing the bank on its abilities to prevent future breaches.
“This security breach seems highly dangerous, indeed possibly devastating in light of the identity theft threat,” says Blumenthal.