Royal Sun Alliance data theft leaves thousands of Lloyd Bank Premier account holders exposed to fraud.
Personal data relating to thousands of Lloyds Bank Premier Current Account customers is thought to have been stolen by fraudsters.
The police have been called to investigate the disappearance of a storage device that contains names, addresses, sort codes and account numbers.
The details belong to customers that have the £25-a-month Lloyds Premier Current Account, which comes with the added benefit of emergency home insurance.
The storage device has been missing since 30th July after it was taken from a data room belonging to Royal Sun Alliance (RSA) insurance, which provided the home cover plan.
The data breach only impacts customers who opened accounts between 2006 and 2012 and subsequently made a claim on their policy.
What should you do?
RSA says it has written to customers impacted by the breach to warn that they may be at risk of fraud.
[SPOTLIGHT]Letters were sent out on Monday 7th September and urge customers to sign up to the Cifas fraud protection service, which can alert you if there is any suspicious activity linked to your personal information.
RSA says it will reimburse the £20 cost to sign up for this protection for two years and Cifas has been made aware of the situation so that it prioritises applications and processes them within 24 hours.
To arrange protection you can visit the Cifas website or call up on 0330 100 0180.
RSA reports that so far no one has had their accounts compromised and as yet there is no evidence that the information contained on the storage device has been accessed or misused in any way.
Customers can contact RSA on a dedicated free helpline number 0800 316 8090 or via email customer.help@uk.rsagroup.com to discuss any concerns.
For more information about the incident and further advice there is a dedicated page on the RSA website.
Could this happen again?
RSA says it has undertaken a full review of its security procedures and controls and is currently investigating how the incident occurred to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
The firm has also informed its regulators including the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
An FCA spokesperson told loveMONEY: “The FCA is aware of the issue and is liaising with the firms to make sure there are steps in place to help those affected. We will also work with the firms to look at the root causes of the data loss, since we expect all regulated firms to have adequate systems and controls in place so that customers' data is not left at risk.”
If it is found that RSA breached data protection laws the firm could be fined.
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