Who Breached: Bank of New York Mellon
Number Affected: 4.5 Million
Information breached: Social Security Numbers
How: backup tape lost

The Bank of New York Mellon has breached the data of 4.5 million people after an unencrypted backup tape disappeared three months ago from a third party storage company, Archive Systems. The company was to transport ten tapes to a data storage facility, but one went missing.

The missing data tape includes Social Security Numbers and bank account information for 4.5 million people (consumers, investors) went missing on February 27, 2008. The lock on the transportation truck was damaged, so it is possible the tape was stolen. The Bank of New York Mellon has not addressed concerns about why the backup tapes were not encrypted. No information about the breach is available on the bank website.

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal says that the breach “seems highly dangerous” and potentially devastating with the threat of identity theft. Blumenthal is demanding that Bank of New York Mellon provide affected customers with more than just credit monitoring (suggestions include identity theft insurance and free credit freezes).

“I am especially concerned by the delay in informing consumers, possibly heightening the risks of wrongdoing. Neither People’s nor its customers were promptly notified. Even now, many may be in the dark.” - Blumenthal

Although the data breach occurred three months ago, consumers only began to be notified six weeks ago. The second half of affected consumers are being notified this week.

You can read more from Richard Blumenthal’s letter here. [PDF]

Via attrition, norwalk plus, sc magazine, reuters, informationweek ; image: clarita @morguefile ; Tags: data breach, breach, bank of new york mellon, 4.5 million, identity theft, data tapes, backup tapes, encryption, data security