Monday, February 2, 2009

"Very Large Data Breach" at Provident Bank

From Provident bank:
security

In case you can't see it, it says
Dear Cardholder:
We have been advised of a very large data breach impacting millions of credit and debit card numbers. Your card information may have been compromised... the best course of action is to reissue your card... please destroy your old card and begin using this new one immediately... please verify all transactions that post to your account each month by reviewing your statement carefully."
Uh oh.

UPDATE: Liz Kay reports that hackers used software to steal card numbers processed by Heartland Payment Systems Inc., the country's 6th largest credit card payment processor.

7 comments:

Abstract said...

I don't see anything about this anywhere at Provident's Site or anywhere on the internet for that matter. Hoax.

ppatin said...

Even if it's real I wouldn't worry about it too much. Just check for false charges and dispute them if they come up. It's probably also worth pulling your credit report in a month or two to make sure no one has screwed with it, but I suspect that nothing will come of this.

Stewie del Gato said...

It's real. I got a notice in the mail and received my new card.

Maurice Bradbury said...

No, I called them, it's real, apparently "multiple banks" and "lots of people's" accounts were affected, which was as specific as they would get.

I found a four-year-old story in the NYT about a data breach in 2004 involving CardSystems Solutions, could this be related?

ppatin said...

A double-whammy of idiocy from state senator Bryan W. Simonaire. He says he'll vote to move the DP repeal bill out of committee if the committee also supports a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. Let's go easy on murderers while at the same time enshrining discrimination in the state constitution. How much more stupid can you get?

ppatin said...

More stupidity from another state senator. Lisa Gladden wants a photo of Barack Obama in every public building.

Tim Windsor said...

I confirmed this today with Provident Customer Service Rep. She said more than 3,000 Provident accounts are affected and that the breach affected multiple banks. She did not know -- or would not say -- what other banks are involved.

There is no notice of this on the provbank.com web site that I can find, thus my earlier skepticism.