Information on an undisclosed number of current and former mortgage customers of HSBC Finance Corp. was inadvertently disclosed over a period of several months, a company spokesman said Tuesday.
A spokesman for the Mettawa, Illinois-based company said the data made accessible included social security numbers, account numbers, some old account information and in some cases phone numbers. He said the firm is not disclosing the number of people affected.
The access began sometime late last year and was discovered in March, when it was immediately addressed, said the spokesman, who said he had no information on the company's cyber insurance. He said the company has notified state regulators as well as those impacted by the breach.
In a statement, the firm said, “HSBC regrets this incident, and we take our responsibility for the security of customer information very seriously. We responded immediately to ensure the information was no longer publicly accessible on the Internet, and are notifying all affected customers as well as offering one year of free credit monitoring. We have also implemented additional security measures designed to prevent a recurrence of such an incident.”
(Reuters) — Banks, rather than their customers, are increasingly the main target of online thieves, Europol director Rob Wainwright said on Friday in an interview.