Received a disturbing letter from our bank on Saturday:
Dear Customer:
The security of your information is important to us and we strive to handle it with care and discretion at all times. We are writing to let you know that we are unable to locate a computer tape at a secure offsite storage facility. The tape is used as a backup for system information. Electronic files on the tape may have included your company name, address and Tax Identification Number(s), but did not include any banking or financial information.
The vendor that operates the offsite storage facility confirmed that it received and maintained the tape, and its facility has been searched. Unfortunately, the tape could not be located. However, the information on the tape can be read only with special equipment and software and we have no evidence to indicate any of the information has been viewed or used inappropriately.
Please accept our apology for any concern this may cause. As a precaution, make sure to monitor your account statements carefully to make certain no unauthorized transactions are made. If you have any questions concern ing this matter, please call us at
Doesn’t sound good, but maybe I worry too much.
On the other hand, why is our bank sending us this form letter? We have several accounts with this bank actually, a couple of credit cards, a few checking accounts, etc., but this letter doesn’t specify which account is suspected of being lost. Is it all of our data? Or just one particular account? Does our bank’s lawyers think that by writing this letter, we won’t be able to sue the bank if something actually is amiss? Should we change our Tax ID #?
We are considering moving all of our accounts elsewhere, as a sort of preemptive move; can’t decide if this is hasty, or prudent. What do you think?
If we can get through to a person, and get some clear answers, I’ll append to this post.
Quoting: the information on the tape can be read only with special equipment and software….
It doesn’t say “equipment and software that only we own.” But, yeah, the information on all our storage devices can only be read with special equipment and software, too. I.e., a computer and whatever software.
A couple years ago my daughter got a similar letter from her bank. Then, about a week or so later, she got an offer, which was approved by her bank, for a credit monitoring service from some other outfit. Same thing happened to me with my bank last year (letter, offer). I’ll be interested to hear if you get a similar offer.
They already offered the credit monitoring service for a year at no charge when we called. If that is the bank’s motive, I’d be quite annoyed at them.