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Consumer Financial Protection Bureau data breach overview:
- Who: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) disclosed last week that it suffered a data breach affecting consumers and financial institutions.
- Why: The data breach has been attributed to a now-former CFPB examiner sending confidential records to a personal email account.
- Where: The data breach affects consumers nationwide.
- What are my options: Norton LifeLock carries many options when it comes to data security.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) disclosed last week that it suffered a data breach it says may have compromised sensitive information in consumer accounts from a number of financial institutions.
The CFPB has attributed the data breach to a now-former CFPB examiner employee sending confidential records to a personal email account, Law360 reports.
The confidential records reportedly included supervisory information on 45 financial institutions along with two spreadsheets containing names and transaction-specific account numbers from seven financial institutions.
The financial institution most affected by the data breach had 256,000 customers who may have had their sensitive information compromised, while one had as few as two potentially exposed account numbers, Law360 reports.
The CFPB has reassured consumers the potentially compromised account numbers were not bank account numbers and could not be used to gain unauthorized access into customer accounts, according to Law360.
CFPB alerted on Feb. 14 to improper email usage by now-former employee
The agency reportedly discovered the improper email usage Feb. 14 when a team member alerted them after noticing the now-former examiner had copied their personal email address on a work correspondence.
The CFPB has not disclosed at this time the name of the former employee, how long they had been improperly using their email or whether they were doing so due to a work-from-home situation or because they had bad intentions, Law360 reports.
The data breach reportedly qualifies as a “major incident” under the Office of Management and Budget guidelines, meanwhile, since the personal information of more than 100,000 individuals may have been exposed.
It is unclear at this time whether any affected consumers have been notified about the data breach, according to Law360.
The CFPB reportedly said last week, however, that it is “working with all impacted institutions on additional steps that may be necessary, including notification where appropriate.”
Earlier this month, the CFPB said it is seeking a $3.1 billion judgment against credit-repair companies Lexington Law and CreditRepair.com over claims they wrongly charged fees for credit-repair services.
Are you concerned you may have been affected by the CFPB data breach? Let us know in the comments.
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