Bank of America Loses Federal Data

As a bank employee, this story makes my blood run cold. One of the standard operating policies of any financial institution is to run a backup every night and store the backups offsite in case of fire, flood, or natural disaster which damages or destroys the data center of the main site. It is a procedure to ensure the security of customer data. It is why most financial institutions located at the World Trade Center were back up and running the next day. Well, for Bank of America this very wise security precaution became a major security breach. The tapes storing the information of 1.2 million Federal Credit Cards (including those of many Senators) were stolen, including a significant amount of personal data. Here's hoping the thieves are found quickly, and the data recovered before more damage is done.