Lost Tape Puts 650,000 at Risk of ID Theft

By Greg McNevin

January 21, 2008: GE Money in the US is at the centre of a new data loss storm after the company announced a backup tape containing the personal information of some 650,000 JC Penney customers, plus information from up to 100 other retailers, was lost at an Iron Mountain storage facility.

GE Money handles credit card operations for many retailers in the US, and according to the Associated Press, the Social Security numbers for around 150,000 people are among the misplaced data.

According to GE Money spokesman Richard C. Jones, the data was stored on a tape in a warehouse run by data storage specialist Iron Mountain, and was found to be missing in October 2007. Jones says the tape was never officially checked out, but cannot be found.

Iron Mountain’s Dan O'Neill told AP that it would take special skills for someone to glean any data from the tape, adding that the company regretted the loss and citing the volume of information the firm deals and human error as contributing factors.

“Because of the volume of information we handle and the fact people are involved, we have occasionally made mistakes,” said O’Neill.

After the problem surfaced in October, GE Money spent two months rebuilding the data on the missing tape to identify which customers have been affected. It has been notifying consumers since December.

Jones told AP that there is “no evidence” that indicates the data has been stolen or used fraudulently, adding that GE Money is paying for one year of credit monitoring for the 150,000 plus customers whose Social Security numbers are among the missing data.

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