HSBC exposed sensitive bankruptcy data
HSBC Bank says a bug in its imaging software inadvertently exposed sensitive data about some of its customers going through bankruptcy proceedings.
In notification letters made public Thursday, the bank said it had redacted sensitive information in Chapter 13 bankruptcy proof-of-claim forms that were filed electronically, but that the information turned out to be viewable "as a result of the deficiency in the software used to save imaged documents."
An HSBC spokeswoman declined to elaborate on the cause of the problem, but said "a limited number of customers" were affected. HSBC has "no reason to believe customers' personal information may have been compromised," she added via e-mail. The company sent letters to affected customers in October and is offering them one year of free credit monitoring.
