Fergie's Tech Blog

CIBC Loses Info on 470,000 Canadians

Sinclair Stewart writes in The Globe and Mail:

The personal information of nearly half-a-million customers at a CIBC mutual fund subsidiary has gone missing, prompting fears of a potential security breach and inciting an investigation from Canada's federal privacy commissioner.

A backup computer file containing application data for 470,000 investors at Montreal-based Talvest Mutual Funds disappeared in transit on the way to Toronto recently, the bank said in a news release Thursday.

The file contained everything from client names and addresses to signatures, birth dates, bank account numbers and Social Insurance Numbers. Officials at CIBC Asset Management Inc., a division of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, said there is no evidence of fraud, nor is there any indication that any data on this hard drive has been accessed. The company did not explain how it lost the drive.

Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart, who launched a probe of CIBC following a faxing snafu two years ago, said she has determined there are grounds for another investigation in the Talvest matter, even though the bank brought the problem to her attention.

posted by Fergie @ 1/18/2007 10:54:00 AM