Posted on 02/25/2005 4:11:26 PM PST by Rapunzel
CHARLOTTE, N.C. Feb 25, 2005 — Bank of America Corp. has lost computer data tapes containing personal information on 1.2 million federal employees, including some members of the U.S. Senate.
The lost data includes Social Security numbers and account information that could make customers of a federal government charge card program vulnerable to identity theft.
Sen. Pat Leahy, D-Vt., is among those senators whose personal information is on the missing tapes, spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said.
GDP Report Sends Dow to Year's Best Close 4th Quarter Growth Stronger Than Expected Latest Market Details
"There were some senators' Visa credit card accounts involved," Schmaler said. "We don't know how many, but he was one of them."
The bank issued an apology.
"We deeply regret this unfortunate incident," said Barbara Desoer, who is in charge of technology, service and fulfillment for the Charlotte-based bank. "The privacy of customer information receives the highest priority at Bank of America, and we take our responsibilities for safeguarding it very seriously."
Leahy has been a leader of calls this week for a Senate Judiciary Committee inquiry into whether more regulation of companies that buy and sell personal data is needed.
That came after the disclosure that ChoicePoint Inc., a data warehouser, had learned that as many as 140,000 consumers may have had their personal information compromised.
"I hope this latest incident at least will bring the issue closer to home so Congress will pay better attention to the rapid erosion of privacy rights that ordinary Americans are facing as more and more of their personal and financial information is collected and sold on databases that too often have too few privacy protections," Leahy said in a statement Friday.
U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said he was told the data backup tapes were likely stolen off of a commercial plane by baggage handlers in December.
"Whether it is identity theft, terrorism, or other theft, in this new complicated world baggage handlers should have background checks and more care should be taken for who is hired for these increasingly sensitive positions," he said.
Wow, it would be neat to have a Chuckie Schumer card and go gun shopping.
Uh ohhh...
We may learn some things they may not want people to know! lol! Wouldn't that be interesting?!
Sen. Pat Leahy, D-Vt., is among those senators whose personal information is on the missing tapes, spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said.
"There were some senators' Visa credit card accounts involved," Schmaler said. "We don't know how many, but he was one of them."
Leahy has been a leader of calls this week for a Senate Judiciary Committee inquiry into whether more regulation of companies that buy and sell personal data is needed.
Sure this was a coincidence, oops, our bad.
I wanna go with you on that trip. Do you have the CCW permit so we can buy instantly! No 3 day waiting period?! LOL
having a husband that was a victim of ID THEFT I hope the h**l they start to do something about this
Maybe if they experience all the crap we had to do to clear our credit, the money we spent for notary, the police visit we made for reports. And now the on going joy of everytime we do anything that invovles credit because we put our credit reports on a fraud alert we are treated like the criminal to PROVE WE ARE THE PEOPLE WE SAY WE ARE. Maybe in Washington is affected they might take action
"GDP Report Sends Dow to Year's Best Close 4th Quarter Growth Stronger Than Expected Latest Market Details"
Not only is it something of a run-on sentence, and poorly written, I don't understand what it has to do with the credit card data lost by the Charlotte bank. It really seems irrelevant to the story at hand.
I'm willing to chalk this up to liberal media bias, but I try to be careful before assigning such blame, so I need to give it more thought. Of course, it could simply be my lack of knowledge about banking issues, such as credit card data and so forth.
If this is media bias, then I really think we need to launch an inquiry into both the Associated Press and ABC News, where this story apparently appeared. But as I said, I'm trying not to rush to judgment. These sorts of things call for very careful consideration, because reputations -- even careers -- can be destroyed by this stuff.
Let's hope some site posts the bankroll amounts on these idiots who get kickbacks. This could get interesting...any bets on who got moola from Soros last year?
I already have Anna Kournikova's cell number, now I just need Kerry's and Clinton's deposit lists to make my collection complete.
My wild guess is that there could be large civil money penalties on this egregious breach. It is likely that the tapes are not encrypted, an elementary security precaution that even large banks rarely engage in.
This isn't identity theft. Yet. Someone has to use their info and pass themselves off as that person for it to be ID theft. All they did was lose some tapes of info.
Someone check Sandy Burger's pants!
That is advertising on the original page that the poster picked up when copying the article. It is not part of the story.
What sucks about all this is that the Senators won't have to pay a dime if somebody uses their identies. The bank will either let it go or the Senators will vote in a special govt. money appropriation to pay for it. The rank and file federal employees are the ones who will get screwed for every nickel whether they charged it or not.
Yuck. That's going to take a specially-trained official. That image is really making me queasy.
WE all pay for it through our taxes.
"GDP Report Sends Dow to Year's Best Close 4th Quarter Growth Stronger Than Expected Latest Market Details"
I think that sentence appeared on the ABC News web page, but that it was not a part of the article.
My guess is that when the poster copy & pasted the article, a bit more of the web page got included than was intended.
Yep! Right after Congress enrolls in Social Security System.
Oh, I'm just loving this! Government drones at risk! About damn time.
What was the info doing on a plane? Or is this more outsourcing stuff?
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