Chase Customers are the latest to receive "free credit report monitoring for 12 months!



Bank Info Security is reporting that Chase Bank is notifying an undisclosed number of customers that their personal data may have been breached.  Here is an excerpt:

Backup Tape Reported Missing from Vendor Storage Facility

From: Linda McGlasson, Managing Editor of Bank Info Security:

"Chase Bank has sent out data breach notification letters to an undisclosed number of customers after a computer tape with customers' personal information was reported missing from a third-party vendor's storage facility.



Tom Kelly, spokesperson for New York-based Chase, the commercial/consumer banking arm of financial giant JPMorgan Chase, says the vendor -- which he would not name -- confirmed it received and maintained the tape, and that its offsite facility had been searched thoroughly after the tape disappeared. Kelly would not say if the data on the tape was encrypted, but says its data can be read only with special equipment and software.



Affected customers are being offered a free one-year subscription to the bank's identity protection program, Kelly says.  (Translation: Free Aspirin for the headache we caused you!)



For more information on 2009 data breaches involving financial institutions, see this interactive timeline