Bank Employee Sends Customer Data To Wrong Gmail Account
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In what can only be described as irresponsible, a bank employee for a Wyoming bank sent sensitive customer data to the wrong Gmail account. But it gets better. The employee was only supposed to send loan statements for a customer but somehow sent an attachment which contained personal information for 1,325 banking customers.
In a recent article it also states that:
After realizing what he’d done, the employee “tried to recall the e-mail without success.”
When that didn’t work, the employee sent a second e-mail to the recipient instructing the person to delete the e-mail and attachment “in its entirety” without opening or reviewing it. The employee also asked the recipient to contact the employee to “discuss his or her actions.”
Silence ensued.
That’s when the bank sued Google to identify the recalcitrant recipient.
Google said it wouldn’t comply without a court order, and even if it does receive a court order, its policy is to notify an account holder and give the person a chance to object to the disclosure of his or her identity. The court is considering the bank’s request.
In the meantime, Rocky Mountain Bank filed a motion last week to seal the entire case until the court decides whether to force Google to reveal the recipient’s name, saying it didn’t want its customers to learn about the breach, because it would create panic and result in a surge of inquiries from customers.
It wants the information under seal until it can determine from Google whether the Gmail account in question is active or dormant, and whether the sensitive customer information is actually at risk of being abused.
A federal judge in San Jose, California denied the bank’s request to seal on Friday.
“An attempt by a bank to shield information about an unauthorized disclosure of confidential customer information until it can determine whether or not that information has been further disclosed and/or misused does not constitute a compelling reason that overrides the public’s common law right of access to court filings,” wrote Judge Ronald Whyte in his ruling, noting that the bank doesn’t have to wait to advise customers that an unauthorized disclosure of information occurred.
What this just goes to show is that we not only have to watch out for hackers but also dumb bank employees.
Comments welcome.
5 Comments
Justin Case
September 22nd, 2009
at 3:13pm
Sounds to me like a rogue insider was caught preparing to commit money laundering, and covered his tracks by sending his fake email address a “letter of apology” asking to delete the email. I mean, who not only sends an email out to the wrong person, but also “accidentally” attaches the financial information of potentially thousands of people?
Ron Schenone
September 22nd, 2009
at 3:53pm
Justin Case - great point. It sounded screwy when I read it. That attachment involving 1,325 people and their info, must of been large.
Zenium
September 22nd, 2009
at 4:04pm
Not just dumb employees. Need to include dumb IT consultants.
leftystrat
September 22nd, 2009
at 8:16pm
Hey - let’s all put our medical information online! The gov’t says it’s safe.
cb on bonanzle
September 29th, 2009
at 2:18am
This just blows my mind. I’m sorry, but Rocky Mountain Bank was in the wrong here. Totally in the wrong. They should have reprimanded their employee instead. I would have to question as to WHY did the employee have to email ANYONE a list of sensitive information? Do people NOT know or realize that emailing from one address to another is NOT safe or confidential as we are lead to believe. Emails can be intercepted along the route by hackers and those who use script programs to spy on mail servers and such.
I sincerely hope that Rocky Mountain Bank customers have heard about this story and hope that they close their accounts at Rocky Mountain Bank PRONTO and find another bank to do business at. Rocky Mountain Bank needs to take responsibility of their own f**k up instead of blaming someone else or trying to pretend that a criminal phantom exists when it doesn’t.
Just who the hell does Rocky Mountain Bank think they are to take away someone’s right to have an email account? Corporations like them seriously disgust me. I hope that whoever the person is that had their email account taken away, I hope that person sues the living sh** out of Rocky Mountain Bank AND Google.