Social Security numbers. Bank account numbers.  Dates of birth. Driver’s license numbers.

Customers of the Bank of Oak Ridge have had all that information exposed due to a security breach.  Hackers have hit the bank and unknown or undisclosed numbers of customers have had key data potentially viewed.

A letter informing customers whom the bank believes were affected reached many of them on Friday, July 9 and informed them of the distressing news.  In addition to the corresponding names, the hacker or hackers potentially viewed vitally important data such as social security numbers and bank account numbers.

“We recently experienced a cybersecurity incident that impacted our computer system and cause a brief disruption to certain banking services,” the letter states.  “We immediately launched an investigation with outside assistance to confirm the nature and the scope of the incident.”

According to the letter, an “unauthorized actor accessed our systems and may have viewed historical data containing certain customer information.”

The attack occurred on April 26 and April 27.   According to bank officials, longtime customers – who opened accounts before September 30, 2009 – are the ones likely to have had information stolen.

The bank is now working with concerned customers and offering them free identity theft protection.

In late April, all of the bank’s branches were closed for two days as a result of this attack.  Customers who attempted to use the bank were told the “Computers were down,” and several media reports at the time spoke of “computer troubles” – however, there was no indication at that time that the cause of the banks’ closure was a massive security breach.

 

 

 

About