Bank of NY Mellon Corp. loses more records than expected
by Steve Ragan - Sep 2 2008, 18:23
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once again a misleading headline. Bank of NY did NOT lose the tapes. Their courier service lost the tapes. Why not say instead
Courier Service loses bank tapes. lets focus on the why and how the courier lost the tapes. I'm not defending the bank as I believe they should have been monitoring and auditing the courier on a regular basis to make sure that they were handling the tapes correctly. But what I am saying is that the focus needs to be on these courier services who are moving thousands of tapes on a daily basis. they advertise that they are there to provide protection for your information and yet when they lose information entrusted to their care little if any blame is assigned to them.
Peterk, I have to disagree with you. BNY Mellon is responsible for the security of my data. I received a letter several months ago. I called their Customer Service people and asked why wasn't the data encrypted. They couldn't answer my question. I work in the information services industry and when any data is ftp'd to an outside vendor it is encrypted as well as all backup data tapes that contain sensitive information. So quit defending BNT Mellon for being so lax on their security policies and for not being more proactive.
if you will reread the story the tapes that were lost were disaster recovery tapes, and since you say you are in the information services industry then you will understand that it may not be possible to encrypt backup data due to the amount of data.
I'm not defending the bank as they clearly failed to monitor the courier service in how they handled the tapes. But encrypting the data will not solve the problem. If you've ever seen tapes being handle you will know that they do not have information that identifies them as belong to the bank. all they will have is color code eye readable label with a barcode.
since they are backup tapes you will also have to access to the program that was used to create them as well as know the order in which to load the tapes.
'I work in the information services industry and when any data is ftp'd to an outside vendor it is encrypted'
we're not talking about data that is ftp'd to a third party we are talking about disaster recovery tapes.
If you look at all the various stories about lost tapes the loss was caused by the service provider and not the tape owner. Once the tapes leave the owner's care they have no control over how the driver handles the tapes. In many cases what happens is that during their runs the drivers periodically have to reload the truck to make sure the load is balanced.
what the banks need to do is periodically monitor such services. Secretly follow the trucks watch what the drivers do and watch how they handle the material. This failure to handle tapes properly is one reason why Brinks has entered the market. I've not heard of a Brinks truck losing sacks of money and saying it is the customer's fault.
Finally I believe that the service provider should suffer from fines just as the banks do. Why should the bank bear the burden of paying fines? Isn't the service provider somehow culpable?
How can ANYONE defend BNY Mellon? I suspect that those here that defend Mellon are employees of Mellon. Get a clue folks! BNY is responsible. They should have ensured that the tapes were securely transported. They were PAID to do so. They are a regulated institution and will be held accountable. The courts and regulatory agencies will prove this out over time. The archive vendor has some culpability, but it's BNY Mellow that was liable to protect their records.
Uhhh OK I think we need a reality check here... First of all the original data tapes sent to BNY by it's clients were ENCRYPTED!!! Why then UN-encrypt them and put them on a DHL truck to a underground storage facility in Pittsburgh area? DHL has an awful track record for loosing data tapes here and in U.K.
I think there is something else going on here that people either can't see or refuse to see. Like a 2-ton elephant standing in your kitchen. It is not hard to get a full incident report to LEAK out of any police dept such as PA State Police. Why isn't the FBI involved? It involves interstate crime (NJ to PA right?). Someone is blocking from BNY corporate side. Or maybe the incident never really happened the way they said it did.
Well the later is the FACT. Gov. Jodi Rell from Connecticut just subpoenaed the records and guess what? Its not 4.5 million its 12 million American victims! OK how much more lies can be uncovered here. Was the DHL driver compromised somehow on the PA Turnpike? Was he in on it? Was it like how the boyz in Jersey say 'It just fell offa' da' back o' duh' truck - bada bing bada boom...'.
BNY is lying their corporate butts off. They hire a fly-by-night bulk mailer in Manchester CT called MISSION CONTROL to pay Transunion for millions of names and addresses. Then they start spamming the US with these bogus form letters that are 6 months late. Some to minors, dead people, and people who never bought a stock in their lives. Some creepy Canadian CEO makes a deal with Experian to set up a SSN collector web site. They hire Filipino offshore outsourced boiler room phone workers for a $1/hour to lie to the American callers about some ridiculous 'code number' to use on his bogus SSN collector web site (consumerinfo.com?).
What's next? After 24 months expires and you don't want this very weak credit service anymore what happens? Identity theft extortion of some sort? This sounds like the creepy bug exterminator who seeds your house with bugs or the anti-virus company who secretly outsources Russian and Bulgarian virus programmers all for 'future' business prospects.
BNY's hands are very dirty here IMO and we are probably about to bail them out with other banks if Bernacke gets his $750 billion bucks today from Congress.
Ok, I just got my letter today! Jan 19, 2009! Almost a year after this happens. I call the number to ask questions - BNY associate is not helpful and can not even tell me what my association is with their company...also, when i call she asks for my last name and last 3 of my ss#
WHAT! the SS# that they compromised????? So i say that...and then she tells me i can give her the code number listed in the letter - WHY doesn't she say that in the first place?
And then i am sure i have to give my SS# to the credit monitoring company - which should have my info if i give them my code number....
So - i am having to GIVE all my info out - when the point of this is that my info was lost - so it is as if i am getting victimized AGAIN. And coverage for 24 months, what happens if it happens in month 26, i am not protected then! OH and the way the letter is addressed: Dear Sir or Madam
THEY can not even address me by my name??? I am so angry by this - i shred every piece of junk mail i get, and then some other company compromises me!
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