Many Banks Hit by One Data Theft Scheme

I work for a small New England Bank who is looking to get MUCH bigger. Unlike most companies, my bank is founded on a set of principles - moral principles - which are supposed to guide everyday transactions. They are generally common sense stuff, but the Way is up everywhere and employees are reminded of it often. I was somewhat skeptical about its effectiveness until I saw this story Suddenly, the principles and all the privacy training they force upon us each year makes a whole lot more sense.

Bank of America Corp. and Wachovia Corp. are among the big banks notifying more than 670,000 customers that account information was stolen in what may the biggest security breach to hit the banking industry.
Account information on the customers was illegally sold by bank employees to a man identified as Orazio Lembo, whom police said was doing business by illegally posing as a collection agency...Customer account numbers and balances were allegedly sold to Lembo, who then sold the information to collection agencies, the Hackensack police department said in a statement.

All this time we are shredding our statements to foil high tech computer thieves, and employees are selling the info right out of their cubicles. Amazing.