150,000 social security numbers exposed due to misplaced backup tape

Posted by Joe on January 24th, 2008

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More than 650,000 consumers have had their personal data put at risk as a result of a lost back up tape. 150,000 of those consumers may have had their social security numbers compromised.

GE Money, a company that provides in store credit card services to over 230 retailers, misplaced the consumer data back in November but are just now confirming the breach. In is unclear what retailers may be impacted but JC penney was definitely one of them according to a GE Money spokesman.

GE Money began contacting impacted consumers in late December and has said that there is no direct evidence that any of the misplaced data has been misused at this point.
Given the volume and type of data that was left unaccounted for in this breach we think it is a textbook example as to why consumers should arm themselves with identity theft protection from a reputable provider. You can read more about identity theft protection and compare providers at NextAdvisor.com.

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