Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) has issued a warning to a select group of customers about a possible data breach. The breach could have potentially exposed sensitive data, including personal details and Social Security numbers.
What Happened: The Bank of America has alerted a small group of its customers about a data breach that may have exposed confidential information. The breach, which took place on December 30, was a result of improper handling of confidential documents by a third-party document destruction service provider.
While the exact number of affected accounts has not been disclosed, the bank confirmed that at least two customers in Massachusetts have been impacted.
The bank said in a statement, “A document destruction vendor did not secure bank-related materials appropriately in transport. Some documents were found outside of the secure containers on the exterior of the financial center.”
The information that could have been exposed includes names, financial account details, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, gender, dates of birth, social security numbers, and other unique government ID data.
Also Read: Massive Data Breach Exposes Millions of Credit and Debit Cards--Is Your Account Safe?
This incident comes on the heels of a similar breach in January where data of at least 414 customers were put at risk due to another third-party breach.
In light of the recent incident, Bank of America is offering the potentially impacted customers a complimentary membership to an identity-theft protection service for two years.
Why It Matters: This is not the first time Bank of America has faced a data breach issue. In January, a similar incident occurred, putting the data of hundreds of customers at risk.
These recurring breaches highlight the vulnerabilities in the bank’s data security measures and the potential risks associated with third-party service providers.
As a result, the bank is now offering identity-theft protection services to potentially affected customers, indicating its efforts to mitigate the impact of such breaches and restore customer trust.
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