For Immediate Release
Media Contact: Aaron Titus
(646) 863-8301 x 2
St. Louis, MO—Hackers going by the name "LulzSecWiki" have posted the names, social security numbers, addresses, phone numbers, employers, work phone numbers, income and other financial information for approximately 315 St. Louis residents. The hackers claim the information came from Midwestern Bankcentre.
A phone message at Midwest Bankcentre indicates that a security incident occured on March 29th, and their website includes a security alert that, "our customers are reporting fraudulent debit & credit card activity... we strongly recommend our customers monitor all of their accounts for suspicious activity."
Identity Finder has analyzed the information which appears to contain:
- Full Names
- Physical and Mailing Addresses
- 315 Email addresses (~100 Unique)
- 315 Social Security Numbers (~100 Unique)
- 417 Phone Numbers (~140 Unique)
- Income and Other Financial Information
The information posted on a website that has been viewed more than 260 times, and was publically available as of April 8, 2013. Even after the site is removed, the information may remain publically available through search engine caches for several weeks. "Individuals affected by this breach are at extreme risk of identity theft and should take immediate action to place credit freezes on their accounts," says Aaron Titus, Chief Privacy Officer at Identity Finder, "Exposure of this sensitive information, including social security numbers, can have far more damaging effects for victims than an exposed credit card number."
Most victims live in St. Louis, but many in Arnold, Wildwood, Imperial, Cedar Hill, Oakville, Fenton, St. Charles, Barnhart, Festus, Wentzville, Pevely, Columbia, O'Fallon, Ballwin, and Freeburg, MO.
Identity Finder alerted Midwest BankCentre about the apparent breach. Update: 4/8/2013 10pm: Midwest BankCentre has confirmed the breach with a statement on their home page that reads, in part, "...on April 8, 2013, Midwest BankCentre learned of a security breach affecting some of its customers' personal information. The Secret Service was immediately notified and is investigating." The bank will contact all affected customers and offer LifeLock identity theft protection. As of 10:30pm, the sensitive personal information remained online, and had reached 330 views.
About
Identity Finder's data discovery and protection software provides companies the ability to prevent data leakage and find sensitive information. They have quickly grown to become a leader in identity protection and Data Loss Prevention (DLP) by helping millions of consumers, small businesses, and enterprises across the world. You may download the free version of Identity Finder DLP Software here: http://identityfinder.com/free