More than 6 weeks after news of the breach broke, Phoenix Ireland is now confirming that a breach thought to have occurred almost one year ago involved personal and financial data:
Phoenix Ireland has confirmed that it has lost a data tape containing the personal and bank account details of 62,000 customers and potential customers.
The company took over the Irish business of life assurance and pension company Scottish Provident two years ago.
The tape, which was not encrypted, is thought to have gone missing in July of last year, while in transit from one office to another.
However, the company says it is not certain that it has been mislaid outside of the company’s premises.
It was initially thought that the data could not be accessed by a third party outside the company. But a subsequent analysis showed that there was a low risk of this.
Read more on RTÉ
Updated May 27: I heard back from Phoenix, whose representative indicates that “If the tape is missing (and the likelihood is that the tape was not produced rather than it was lost) it went missing in July 2010. Phoenix started informing individuals in April 2011.”