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In June, it was reported that, thanks to couriers, the Bank of New York Mellon Corp. had lost over four million customer records. Now, new information claims the loss was much larger than originally reported by BNY Mellon. Last week, the bank revealed in court documents that 12.5 million people were affected.
Original numbers reported by BNY Mellon were off base, loss larger than reported. (IMG:J.Anderson)
Kevin Heine, a spokesman for the BNY Mellon, told Reuters the number of affected individuals had risen by eight million from the 4.5 million reported earlier. Court papers from Connecticut place the likely total at 10 million.
“It is simply outrageous that this mountain of information was not better protected and it is equally outrageous that we are hearing about a possible six million additional individuals and businesses six months after the fact,” Connecticut Gov. Jodi Rell said in a related statement. “We fear a substantial number Connecticut residents are among this latest group.”
The most recent figures came in response to the subpoenas that Governor Rell had ordered issued in May by the state Department of Consumer Protection.
Rell has directed Consumer Protection Commissioner Jerry Farrell, Jr. to continue to work with Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and pursue “all remedies available” under Connecticut law against BNY Mellon, including seeking a substantial fine, restitution to consumers, and other penalties.
"Nothing in the data we were given in May and June by BNY Mellon indicated in any way that these additional six million individuals and businesses were involved," Farrell said. “This certainly raises serious additional questions about how secure personal identifying data is at the Bank of New York Mellon and widens the scope of our investigation.”
“We learned earlier this year of two isolated incidents in which back-up data storage tapes were discovered missing from third-party couriers working for the Company's BNY Mellon Shareowner Services and Working Capital Solutions businesses,” the bank said via an information portal on its official Web site.
The missing data, including names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, and other account information, was reported after court papers surfaced in Connecticut. BNY Mellon is offering two years of credit monitoring; including daily credit monitoring and alerts to changes in your credit file from all three credit agencies, monthly “no hit” alerts and more. In addition, it is offering a cap of $25,000 USD ID theft insurance, and credit freezes if needed.
So why was there an eight million record discrepancy? According to the company there were two related losses, and the 12 million total on records lost is the result of the two incidents.
In late April, a back-up data storage tape from BNY Mellon Working Capital Solutions' operations in Philadelphia was lost while being transported by a national courier to the Company's offices in Pittsburgh, PA.
In late February, six of 10 boxes of back-up data storage tapes were discovered missing from an Archive America truck headed to New Jersey.
The February incident is the one that made the press, and included records of over four million people. Some of the comments left on The Tech Herald included references of notices sent to minors, a fact that The Tech Herald was unable to confirm from the bank.
BNY Mellon said that the tapes would be difficult to read and that there is no evidence that the lost information has been used for nefarious means. However, if discovered by criminals, the bank has forgotten that tape readers are available for a dime-a-dozen.
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