According to Interim Co-Lead Counsel in the Class Action Lawsuit in Houston Federal Court: Banks and credit unions that issued VISA payment cards compromised by the Heartland Payment Systems data breach, the largest data breach in history, should carefully review the proposed settlement between Heartland and VISA. The proposed settlement has many weaknesses: (1) it…
Category: Financial Sector
Mortgage Broker Who Dumped Consumer Records Settles FTC Charges
A mortgage broker who discarded consumers’ personal financial records in a publicly- accessible dumpster paid a $35,000 civil penalty to settle Federal Trade Commission charges. According to an FTC complaint filed in December 2008, the defendant improperly disposed of about 40 boxes of sensitive consumer records collected by companies he had owned, including tax returns,…
(update) Swiss to exclude stolen data from tax cooperation
Switzerland will not cooperate with foreign authorities on tax cases where client data has been stolen from banks, its Finance Department said on Wednesday, following a recent spat with France. “No administrative assistance can be provided in the case of violation of public policy or the principle of good faith,” the department said in a…
Chase bank seems a bit too loose with clients’ data
David Lazarus writes: West Hills resident Victoria Afonina works as a computer programmer for a major supermarket chain, so she knows probably better than most people how vulnerable her personal information is once it gets out into the open. She routinely tells banks and other financial-service providers that they can’t share her information with other…
FINRA notifies Lincoln National of security vulnerability
A vulnerability in the portfolio information system for broker-dealer subsidiaries of Lincoln National Corporation potentially exposed the records of 1,200,000 people, 18,900 of whom are New Hampshire residents. By letter dated January 4, attorneys for Lincoln Financial Securities Corporation and Lincoln Financial Advisors notified the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office that although an outside forensic…
NY: Hackers pluck 8,300 customer logins from bank server (updated)
Dan Goodin reports: Hackers have stolen the login credentials for more than 8,300 customers of small New York bank after breaching its security and accessing a server that hosted its online banking system. The intrusion at Suffolk County National Bank happened over a six-day period that started on November 18, according to a release (PDF)…