Data Breach of Credit Card Details for 650,000 Consumers Including 150,000 Social Security Numbers

GE Money USA, a company that provides credit card processing services for retailers, has suffered a data breach potentially affecting the credit card details for approximately 650,000 consumers.  A backup tape has been missing since October from an Iron Mountain Inc. (NYSE: IRM) secure storage facility.

GE Money has publicly only identified one retailer, J.C. Penny Co. (NYSE: JCP) as being one of the affected retailers whose data was compromised on the lost backup tape.   In addition GE Money has stated that approximately 150,000 social security numbers for customers of retailers were stored on the backup tape.

GE Money is providing free credit monitoring for one year to those consumers affected and has informed consumers via letters mailed starting in early December 2007.

Data Breach Affects 650k Customers of 230 Retailers
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GE Money Backup Tape With 650,000 Records Missing At Iron Mountain
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=205901244