Identity Concern

June 24, 2008 by
Filed under: Life 

On the occasion of my 5th anniversary, I bought one of those “one share of stock in a frame” gifts for Carolyn.  I bought Disney stock, in honor of our honeymoon.

Yesterday I got a letter from Bank of New York Mellon Shareholder Services.  They lost a backup tape back in February 2008 that contained my name, address, social security number, and stock ownership information.  They state that they don’t believe that the information was misused but they are offering me free credit monitoring for 24 months and $25,000 of identity theft insurance.  They will also pay any costs associated with placing a security freeze on my credit report and removing it once.

Now, I understand the need for this.  I am an IT manager, and I know how tapes can be lost.  What concerns me is the fact that the BNY Mellon Shareholder Services folks didn’t encrypt the information in their system.  I completed a project several years ago to encrypt all credit card information within our company.

Watch your credit, folks.

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Comments

5 Comments on Identity Concern

  1. Rev Kim on Tue, 24th Jun 2008 11:53 pm

    2. On Monday, I received the same type of letter from a major University hospital, with similar details – back-up tape lost, while they don’t believe my identity will be stolen, the thieves have my name & ssn, and the university hospital is offering the same one-year of free credit monitoring. Guess I’ll be signing up for that. I had the same thoughts – this is a major hospital, and they don’t encrypt the information?

  2. Gannet Girl on Wed, 25th Jun 2008 7:03 am

    3. You guys did call to make sure these letters aren’t scams, didn’t you?

  3. Mark on Wed, 25th Jun 2008 11:04 am

    4. I have experience with the companies and websites listed, and I do not believe this is a scam.

  4. Rev Kim on Wed, 25th Jun 2008 1:46 pm

    5. As do I.

  5. Identity Concern, part 2 : Mark Time on Tue, 20th Jan 2009 3:07 pm

    6. […] a month ago, I posted that the Bank of New York had lost my Disney shareholder information, and was offering credit […]

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