GE Credit Card Information Missing
January 30, 2008
It was recently reported that a backup tape that contained information from literally hundreds of United States retailers nationwide was missing. The information contained on the tape was credit card information that was being stored by the various retailers. The news has forced the company that was responsible for the information to warn customers of those retailers that their information may be in jeopardy.
The company, GE Money, manages several in-store credit card programs that are used by the majority of retailers based in the US. According to Richard Jones, a spokesperson for GE Money, the tape was discovered missing in October of last year. It had been store in an Iron Mountain storage facility. Jones said: “We were informed that one of the tapes could not be located, but at the same time there was no record of it ever having been checked out.”
The missing tape is reported to have contained the credit card information of some 650,000 customers of various retail establishments. The information was not encrypted.
Reportedly, as many as 230 other retailers may have had customer information on the tape as well. That number includes many of the largest, national retail organizations.
The tape also contained the Social Security numbers of nearly 150,000 customers.
Jones went on to say that after conducting an investigation there is no evidence that the information has been used or that the tape was actually stolen. It could be simply misplaced.
GE Money began to send out letters to those who had personal information on the missing tape in December. They also set up a toll free phone number to help those who may have concerns or questions and are offering one year of free credit monitoring to those affected by the missing tape.
GE Money is a division of General Electric