Because a missing computer tape is still at large, personal information of about 650,000 people and Social Security numbers for about 150,000 people in U.S. could be compromised, media reported Friday.
The information was on a backup computer tape that was discovered missing last October. It was being stored at a warehouse run by Iron Mountain Inc., a data storage company, and was never checked out nor be found, said Richard C. Jones, said a spokesman for GE Money, part of General Electric Capital Corp.
Jones said there was "no indication of theft or anything of that sort," and no evidence of fraudulent activity on the accounts involved.
Iron Mountain spokesman Dan O'Neill said it would take specialized skills for someone to glean the personal data from the tape. He said the company regretted losing the tape, "but because of the volume of information we handle and the fact people are involved, we have occasionally made mistakes."
Jones said GE Money was paying for 12 months of credit-monitoring service for customers whose Social Security numbers were on the tape.
It took GE Money two months to reconstruct the missing tape and identify the people whose information was lost.
Since December, the company has been notifying consumers in batches of several thousand and telling them to phone a call center set up to deal with the breach. The notification is expected to be completed next week.
Source: Xinhua/Agencies
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