Glitch At National Bank of Canada Exposes Personal Information

The National Bank of Canada, the sixth largest lender in Canada, has become the latest high-profile firm to announce a data breach.

According to a report in Reuters, the National Bank of Canada said Thursday (Sept. 21) that a glitch on its website may have exposed the personal information of more than 400 of its customers. Reuters reported people may have been able to see other customers’ data when filling out an electronic form on the bank’s website. The financial institution said the glitch was caused by human error and that it will provide free credit monitoring services to impacted customers. The report noted that addresses, social insurance numbers and banking information were not among the customer information disclosed due to the glitch.

The revelation on the part of National Bank of Canada comes as consumers in the U.S. are reeling from the recent news that credit scoring company Equifax had a data breach which may have impacted 143 million customers. In that data breach, the fraudsters may have stolen numerous important and identifying information on consumers, including birth dates and Social Security numbers. What’s more, 209,000 credit card accounts were also breached in the hack.

News of Equifax’s data breach has resulted in outcry from consumers, lawmakers and regulators. Even the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has gotten in on the action, announcing in a rare statement last week that it is looking into the breach. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is also involved, as three Equifax executives sold stock after the breach was discovered by the company but before news of it was made public.

Adding to the pain the company is facing, in trying to help customers get information about the breach, Equifax actually linked to a fake version of its website created by Nick Sweeting. Sweeting is a software engineer who was trying to demonstrate just how big a security liability the credit rating agency’s site really is.