HSBC exposed sensitive bankruptcy data

By Robert McMillan
IDG News Service
December 4, 2009

HSBC Bank says a bug in its imaging software inadvertently exposed
sensitive data about some of its customers going through bankruptcy
proceedings.

In notification letters made public Thursday, the bank said it had
redacted sensitive information in Chapter 13 bankruptcy proof-of-claim
forms that were filed electronically, but that the information turned
out to be viewable "as a result of the deficiency in the software used
to save imaged documents."

An HSBC spokeswoman declined to elaborate on the cause of the problem,
but said "a limited number of customers" were affected. HSBC has "no
reason to believe customers' personal information may have been
compromised," she added via e-mail. The company sent letters to affected
customers in October and is offering them one year of free credit
monitoring.

Some customers of the following HSBC companies are affected: HSBC
Taxpayer Financial Services, Beneficial New Hampshire and Household
Finance Corporation.

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