Jeff Prestridge reports:
Skipton Building Society faces a heavy fine from the Financial Services Authority after a serious breach of data security procedures that resulted in more than 3,000 savers receiving financial details about other customers of the mutual.
[…]
When Skipton mailed 108,000 account statements to savers last weekend, 3,115 went out with the name, account number, balance and interest earned in the previous year of different customers printed on the reverse of the letters.
On Friday, Skipton stressed the details did not include customers’ addresses, dates of birth or ‘other identifying details’, so their accounts could not be plundered.
It also said the accounts were all passbook operated, which meant withdrawals could be made only with an authorised signature. None of the accounts was accessible via the internet.
In a statement to Financial Mail, Skipton said: ‘We are writing to those affected to apologise and to reassure them that the correspondence contained insufficient information to enable any unauthorised transactions on their accounts.
‘We are also offering to change the account numbers of any customers seeking additional peace of mind.’
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