Massive Data Theft in Citibank Hack

It's being reported that hackers have stolen the details of thousands of Citibank customers including their account details and personal information.

The breach has not exposed the names, dates of birth and card security codes and all of this information remains safe.

The breach reportedly occurred in May and Citibank have been criticized for not alerting customers earlier.  Around 200,000 customers have been affected but the bank has said it could affect up to 1% of it's 21 million customers.

In a statement to the news organization Reuters, a spokesperson said "We are contacting customers whose information was impacted. Citi has implemented enhanced procedures to prevent a recurrence of this type of event."  The bank has not yet detailed how the hack occurred.

Citybank is the latest company to be hit by hackers.  The most high profile was electronics and gaming giant Sony, where the details of millions of customers were stolen.  A similar attack recently on Nintendo was unsuccessful.

Citigroup has been heavily criticized by privacy groups and advocates for its handling of the hack. Not only did the company not inform customers directly when it became aware of the successful hacking attempt, it furthermore did not offer customers free access to credit file monitoring services, something which usually is offered to customers affected by a breach to help them monitor their finances.

Since social security numbers were not stolen in the hack, it is unlikely that the hackers will be able to impersonate customers of the bank to cause further damages.

Update: Citibank recently confirmed that 360,000 customer accounts were affected by the hack, and while that is less than the 21 million suggested previously, it still means nearly double the amount the company initially assumed were affected by the security breach.

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