By letter dated December 22, Sovereign Bank’s Chief Privacy Officer notified the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office of a security breach:
On October 15, Sovereign Bank… became of aware of unusual activity based on IP traffic. Upon discovery of the issue, the Bank launched an investigation, and performed due diligence which was completed on December 15.
It was determined that an unknown entity placed a keylogger on a laptop that allowed the information of two New Hampshire customers to be viewed inappropriately. The accessed information included the customer name, address, and Social Security Number.
The total number of customers whose data were accessed was not indicated. Nor is it clear how the keylogger was installed on the laptop and whether it was one of the bank’s laptops or if an employee had connected using a personal laptop.
Sovereign offered those affected free credit monitoring, but the letter did not tell them that the data had been accessed by a keylogger. I suspect, but have no proof, that if people were informed that their data were captured by a keylogger as opposed to being told more generically that there had been “unauthorized access by a third party,” they might be more concerned and more likely to enroll in free credit monitoring. They might also be more diligent about checking their accounts and credit report. But maybe I’m just projecting from what my own reaction would be.