Two New Bank Breaches Reported

PNC, Fifth Third Reveal Incidents Involving Debit Cards Two new breaches of debit card data have been reported by a pair of Ohio-based banks, raising the total number of banking-related data breaches to 22 so far this year.

The first incident occurred with debit cards held by the former customers of Cleveland, OH-based National City Bank, now owned by PNC Financial Services. The second breach, at an unidentified third-party vendor of Fifth Third Bank, has caused the bank to replace affected debit cards for customers in Ohio and Michigan.

Here are the details currently available about these incidents:

National City Bank Hacked
Pittsburgh, PA-based PNC Financial Services says that only former National City Bank debit accounts were compromised in a system wide breach. National City Bank, based in Cleveland, OH was acquired by the $270 billion asset PNC in December 2008.

PNC spokesperson Fred Solomon says current PNC customers were not affected, and the National City Bank debit cards impacted were only in the Cincinnati, OH area. The bank says the customers' debit cards were compromised shortly before the acquisition occurred in 2008. Bank officials were made aware of the data breach last week, says Solomon, who wouldn't say how many customer accounts were compromised or how much money was taken. All open accounts are under enhanced surveillance, Solomon says.

Vendor Caused Fifth Third Card Compromise
A security breach through a third-party vendor has prompted Fifth Third Bank, Cincinnati, OH, to send new debit cards to an undisclosed number of banking customers in Michigan and Ohio. Fifth Third Bank has banking branches in 12 states.

The vendor was not identified, according to Stephanie Honan, media spokesperson for the bank, but last week a limited number of affected customers were sent new cards and a notification letter that stated the debit cards "may have been compromised," yet that other personal data, including Social Security numbers, was not accessed.

Honan wouldn't disclose how many customers were affected, and adds that the card replacements were done as part of the $113 billion asset bank's ongoing monitoring for fraudulent card activity. Honan says no customer suffered any losses, and there was no risk of identity theft.


About the Author

Linda McGlasson

Linda McGlasson

Managing Editor

Linda McGlasson is a seasoned writer and editor with 20 years of experience in writing for corporations, business publications and newspapers. She has worked in the Financial Services industry for more than 12 years. Most recently Linda headed information security awareness and training and the Computer Incident Response Team for Securities Industry Automation Corporation (SIAC), a subsidiary of the NYSE Group (NYX). As part of her role she developed infosec policy, developed new awareness testing and led the company's incident response team. In the last two years she's been involved with the Financial Services Information Sharing Analysis Center (FS-ISAC), editing its quarterly member newsletter and identifying speakers for member meetings.




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