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Chase Trashes Tapes
Chase digs landfill for tapes improperly disposed
September 7, 2006
1 Min Read
11:30 -- In a wacky twist on the lost-tapes trend, Chase Card Services, a subsidiary of JPMorgan Chase, announced this morning that it's notifying 2.6 million "current and former Circuit City credit card account holders" that computer tapes with personal information about them were "mistakenly identified as trash and thrown out."
Chase is working with "federal and local law enforcement" to retrieve the tapes, which were compacted in a locked box and buried in a landfill.
The CEO speaks:
"We deeply regret that this has occurred and apologize to those impacted," says Rich Srednicki, chief executive officer of Chase Card Services, which issues co-branded and private-label credit cards for Circuit City. "We have found no evidence that the tapes or their contents have been accessed or misused. The privacy of our customers' personal information is of utmost importance to us, and we take the responsibility to safeguard this information very seriously."
How much evidence do we need that tape backup is trashable? May we suggest that Mr. Srednicki consider the purchase of VTLs to avoid "impacting" anyone else with a compactor? That way, even if the mistake is a human one, nobody has to get dirty.He's digging it. In its statement, Chase says it's "strengthened a number of security procedures and is currently conducting a comprehensive review of all data storage and protection processes."
Mary Jander, Site Editor, Byte and Switch
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