http://www.usatoday.com/money/industrie...05-06-06-citifinancial-lost-data_x.htm
Posted 6/6/2005 1:08 PM Updated 6/7/2005 9:34 AM
Tapes with data on 3.9M missing
By Jon Swartz, USA TODAY
In the largest known case of its kind, CitiFinancial (C), the consumer-finance division of Citigroup, said Monday it is notifying 3.9 million U.S. customers that computer tapes containing information about their accounts are missing.
The data include Social Security numbers, names and addresses but not credit card or bank account numbers, spokesman Steve Silverman says.
The incident is the latest in a string of data losses or breaches that have forced financial institutions and other data collectors to warn millions of customers their personal information might be at risk. It also underscores a thriving underground market for stolen IDs, law enforcement officials and privacy experts say.
The New York-based financial giant said a box containing the tapes, which was picked up May 2 at a data center in New Jersey, was lost by UPS (UPS) during transport to a Texas facility for credit bureau Experian. CitiFinancial discovered the box was missing May 24. After discussing the matter internally and contacting the Secret Service, CitiFinancial sent its first notices to customers on June 4, the company says.
"We've gone through the entire routing of the small package, and we have been unable to find it," UPS spokesman Norman Black says. "There is no indication the box was stolen." UPS, which delivers 14.1 million packages daily, notified law enforcement agencies, but Black declined to identify them.
CitiFinancial says the tapes contained information about active and closed accounts at CitiFinancial's branch network, which handles personal and home-equity loans. It says they did not contain data from CitiFinancial Auto, CitiFinancial Mortgage or any other Citigroup business.
CitiFinancial says it has no reason to believe the information has been "used inappropriately," and it has not received reports of unauthorized activity. Citigroup is offering affected customers free credit monitoring for 90 days.
Starting in July, data will be sent electronically in encrypted form, says Kevin Kessinger, president of Citigroup's Consumer Finance North America.
Personal data has become lucrative currency for criminals because the credit system allows anyone with someone's identity information to set up lines of credit until fraud is detected.
Nearly 10 million Americans were victims of ID theft last year, the Better Business Bureau says.
"My first reaction to CitiFinancial is, 'Why wasn't this data encrypted?' " says Pam Dixon, executive director of World Privacy Forum, a non-profit research group. "And was it lost or stolen?"
Citigroup joins Time Warner (TWX), Bank of America (BAC) and others in disclosing the loss of sensitive data.
Last month, Time Warner said computer tapes containing data on 600,000 individuals were lost by an outside data-storage firm. In February, Bank of America said it lost data tapes for 1.2 million federal employees.
---------------------------------------
When we found this out at the office, everyone grimaced.
Posted 6/6/2005 1:08 PM Updated 6/7/2005 9:34 AM
Tapes with data on 3.9M missing
By Jon Swartz, USA TODAY
In the largest known case of its kind, CitiFinancial (C), the consumer-finance division of Citigroup, said Monday it is notifying 3.9 million U.S. customers that computer tapes containing information about their accounts are missing.
The data include Social Security numbers, names and addresses but not credit card or bank account numbers, spokesman Steve Silverman says.
The incident is the latest in a string of data losses or breaches that have forced financial institutions and other data collectors to warn millions of customers their personal information might be at risk. It also underscores a thriving underground market for stolen IDs, law enforcement officials and privacy experts say.
The New York-based financial giant said a box containing the tapes, which was picked up May 2 at a data center in New Jersey, was lost by UPS (UPS) during transport to a Texas facility for credit bureau Experian. CitiFinancial discovered the box was missing May 24. After discussing the matter internally and contacting the Secret Service, CitiFinancial sent its first notices to customers on June 4, the company says.
"We've gone through the entire routing of the small package, and we have been unable to find it," UPS spokesman Norman Black says. "There is no indication the box was stolen." UPS, which delivers 14.1 million packages daily, notified law enforcement agencies, but Black declined to identify them.
CitiFinancial says the tapes contained information about active and closed accounts at CitiFinancial's branch network, which handles personal and home-equity loans. It says they did not contain data from CitiFinancial Auto, CitiFinancial Mortgage or any other Citigroup business.
CitiFinancial says it has no reason to believe the information has been "used inappropriately," and it has not received reports of unauthorized activity. Citigroup is offering affected customers free credit monitoring for 90 days.
Starting in July, data will be sent electronically in encrypted form, says Kevin Kessinger, president of Citigroup's Consumer Finance North America.
Personal data has become lucrative currency for criminals because the credit system allows anyone with someone's identity information to set up lines of credit until fraud is detected.
Nearly 10 million Americans were victims of ID theft last year, the Better Business Bureau says.
"My first reaction to CitiFinancial is, 'Why wasn't this data encrypted?' " says Pam Dixon, executive director of World Privacy Forum, a non-profit research group. "And was it lost or stolen?"
Citigroup joins Time Warner (TWX), Bank of America (BAC) and others in disclosing the loss of sensitive data.
Last month, Time Warner said computer tapes containing data on 600,000 individuals were lost by an outside data-storage firm. In February, Bank of America said it lost data tapes for 1.2 million federal employees.
---------------------------------------
When we found this out at the office, everyone grimaced.
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