Bank forced to probe missing customer data
Wednesday November 05 2008
Bank of Ireland has been forced to launch an internal inquiry after the personal details of close to 1,000 of its customers went missing after an employee copied them onto a computer memory stick that was subsequently lost.
But the bank last night stressed that the blunder was not a serious threat to its security. BOI spokeswoman Anne Mathews said they were confident the latest data protection breach to hit the bank was due to the actions of a single employee.
"We would see this as an isolated incident that is in breach of bank policy," she told the Irish Independent last night.
Computer
The bank confirmed that it is launching an internal probe after the employee wrongfully copied the personal data of 894 customers onto an unencrypted computer USB memory stick which was subsequently reported lost last week.
The memory stick was used to copy and store electronic bank data gleaned from a customer survey the bank had carried out.
Most material related to bank business and did not contain important or sensitive financial information, though it did contain the account numbers, first line address and contact phone numbers of some of its customers.
Most of the account-holders have been contacted by the bank to assure them there was nothing in the data that could be used by third parties to commit bank fraud or to gain access to their accounts.
However the accounts of the affected customers will be monitored as a precaution in the unlikely event the information reaches identity fraudsters.
The bank launched an i investigation after the inadvertent loss of the USB stick was reported to it last Wednesday.
The Office of the Data Protection Commission is now awaiting a report from the bank on the matter.
- Allison Bray
