Citigroup, the world's largest bank, has lost the
account and payment history data on 3.9 million of its
customers.
The company said the details were lost in transit by United
Parcel Service (UPS). The loss is the latest potential identity
theft scare to hit major US companies, including Time Warner, MCI,
ChoicePoint, and Lexis-Nexis.
The loss affects customers of the company’s CitiFinancial branch
network. The personal information was on computer tapes that were
lost by UPS while in transit to a credit bureau.
The tapes contained unencrypted information about CitiFinancial
branch network customers in the US, as well as customers with
closed accounts from CitiFinancial Retail Services.
The tapes did not contain any customer information from any
other Citigroup business.
CitiFinancial said it had no reason to believe that the
information has been used inappropriately, nor has it received any
reports of unauthorised activity, so far.
“We deeply regret this incident, which occurred in spite of the
enhanced security procedures we require of our couriers,” said
Kevin Kessinger, executive vice president of Citigroup's global
consumer group.
“There is little risk of the accounts being compromised because
customers have already received their loans, and no additional
credit may be obtained from CitiFinancial without prior approval of
our customers, either by initiating a new application or by
providing positive proof of identification. Beginning in July, this
data will now be sent electronically in encrypted form,” said
Kessinger.
“Customer security is of paramount importance to Citigroup,”
said Debby Hopkins, chief operations and technology officer at
Citigroup.
“While this incident affects the customers of only one of our
businesses, we put significant effort into assuring that our data
protection procedures meet and exceed industry standards at all of
our businesses, and are reviewing the issues here as part of this
ongoing effort.”
Ironically, before the loss of the tapes, Citigroup had
announced an aggressive legal campaign against identity thieves by
partnering with district attorneys across the US.