New reports out yesterday indicate that the theft of HSBC client data was bigger than initially reported, but the reports differ as to how big it really was.
Jeremy Kirk reports on Computerworld:
HSBC said Thursday about 15,000 accounts of its Swiss private banking unit were compromised after an employee allegedly stole data, some of which ended up in the hands of French tax authorities.
But Frank Jordans of the Associated Press reports that HSBC said it was 24,000 clients whose data were stolen, and Emily Ford of Times Online also reports the 24,000 figure. The difference may be whether one counts only “live” accounts or includes 9,000 now-defunct (subsequently closed) accounts.
[An earlier version of this post did not explain the apparent discrepancy between reports.]