Bank of NY Loses Tapes With 4.5 Million Clients' Data

Lucas123 brings news that Bank of New York Mellon Corp. has admitted they lost a box of unencrypted data storage tapes. The tapes contained personal information for over 4.5 million people. From Computerworld: "The bank informed the Connecticut State Attorney General's Office that the tapes ... were lost in transport by off-site storage firm Archive America on Feb. 27. The missing backup tapes include names, birth dates, Social Security numbers, and other information from customers of BNY Mellon and the People's United Bank in Bridgeport, Conn., according to a statement by Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.

More importantly ..

[Spacejock]

did they lose the station wagon the tapes were being transported in?

New Unit

[Wellington Grey]

While it may look bad, it's still only 1/5th of a metric Britain [zdnet.co.uk].

-Grey [silverclipboard.com]

God Bless America

[Grimbleton]

Can we please go more than a few days without this happening yet again? Thanks.

Re:More importantly ..

[Gazzonyx]

No, they lost the intern this time. If we're lucky it'll be the consultant next time! ;)

Re:More importantly ..

[commodoresloat]

Luckily, the tapes were all 8-track tapes so the authorities have said not to worry, nobody will be able to do anything with them.

Re:Unencrypted?

[Anonymous Coward]

They already did.
Don't you think they use their own bank?

CAPTCHA "Contempt" is somehow appropriate.

The Responsible Thing

[not_surt]

The bank should do the responsible thing and offer every affected customer a new identity.

Re:Unencrypted?

[Anonymous Coward]

Turns out, the EU considers the laws in the US as insufficient when it comes to guarding and protecting individual privacy (apparently, we're on a list of untrusted foreign entities when it comes to privacy protection)...

For one thing, the EU doesn't consider ROT-26 to be twice as effective as ROT-13.

Re:really? again?

[Chapter80]

Actually, the data was encrypted using a complex algorithm called ASC2 or ASC II or something like that. I'm sure the data is safe. No one will be able to decode it. It's gibberish, written in just zeros and ones. If your Social Security Number contains even ONE digit in the range of 2-9, you should be fine.

Sorry for not revealing too many technical details. I'd hate to give a criminal too much to go on.

Meh

[Gazzonyx]

Why bother citing when someone will come along and tell you whom it is you're quoting, anyways ;)