Melissa Ziedy reports:
Investigators now believe the security breach at major Phoenix mortgage company could be an inside job.
A police report obtained by CBS 5 News details how last month officials at the Lending Company in north Phoenix contacted detectives. One of its managers had reported seeing a computer transferring customer’s personal information to an external source.
The police report indicates an employee may be the culprit, but no arrests have been made.
The company mailed letters to its customers, warning of the potential for identity theft.
Tim Ward contacted CBS 5 after receiving one of the letters, alerting him to the security breach.
“The letter said that they had their system hacked, and my information was ‘out there’ somewhere,” Ward said.
The Lending Company does business in 12 states, including Arizona. The company admitted its secure database was breached on May 4, potentially putting at risk thousands of its customers.
Read more on KPHO. Thanks to the Identity Theft Resource Center for alerting me to this story.
In previous coverage last month, Bill Zielinski reproduced part of the firm’s notification letter:
“We are contacting you about a potential problem involving identity theft. Recently, we have learned of a data security incident in which someone accessed and potentially downloaded sensitive personnel records including names, contact information, and social security numbers. We have notified law enforcement regarding the incident and have provided them with a general report. Due to the nature of this incident we strongly encourage you to take preventative measures to help prevent and detect any misuse of your information.
We recommend that you place a fraud alert on your credit file…You are encourage to call any one of the three major credit bureaus listed below.”
Zielinsky also points out important pieces of information omitted from the notification and the firm’s failure to offer those affected any free service. You can read more of his commentary and reporting on MortgagedFuture.com.