Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) has alerted a select group of its customers about a data breach that may have exposed personal and financial information.
Data Breach Details
The breach, which occurred on December 30, stemmed from the improper handling of confidential documents by a third-party document destruction service provider.
The bank stated that the breach occurred because, “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.”
While the exact number of affected accounts has not been released, the bank confirmed that at least two customers in Massachusetts have been impacted.
The potentially exposed information includes:
- Names
- Financial account details
- Addresses
- Phone numbers
- Email addresses
- Gender
- Dates of birth
- Social Security numbers
- Other unique government ID data
Identity Theft Protection
In response to the breach, Bank of America is offering complimentary membership to an identity-theft protection service for two years to potentially impacted customers.
This recent incident follows a similar breach in January where the data of at least 414 customers were put at risk due to another third-party breach, highlighting the bank’s recurring data security issues and the potential risks tied to third-party service providers.
