Ameritrade client files missing
p2pnet.net News:- US online broker Ameritrade says it`s lost account information for up to 200,000 customers.
This is the latest in a series of incidents in which personal data have gone missing, or have been stolen.
In recent cases, hackers penetrated Reed Elsevier’s LexisNexis database and stole confidential information on close to 310,000 people; and, ChoicePoint admits personal information on 145,000 Americans, “may have been compromised” when people posing as small business customers got into its database.
In this new example, nothing has been stolen and the information in question was stored on back-up cassettes.
United Press International quotes Ameritrade spokeswoman Donna Kush as saying a tape containing data on 200,000 current and former customers account holders’ information from 2000 to 2003 was misplaced by a shipping company.
Ameritrade “has every reason to believe” the missing tape has been destroyed, or is still somewhere in the shipper’s facility, Kush said, adds UPI.
“The data was [sic] different for each client and may have included their Social Security numbers, among other information, Kush said,” according to an Associated Press report which goes on:
“On Monday, Columbus, Ohio-based DSW Shoe Warehouse said that thieves had accessed a database with credit card records on about 1.4 million customers. The company said it has contact information for about half of those people and started sending letters notifying them of the thefts, which happened at 108 stores in 25 states between November and February.”
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See:-
United Press International – Ameritrade addresses missing tape, p2pnet, April 19, 2005
Associated Press – Ameritrade Loses 200,000 Client Files, April 19, 2005
