37,000 bank and credit union customers in Massachusetts was compromised last year, security breaches that touched virtually every lender operating in the state.
The data-security challenge doesn’t necessarily present itself to banks in big, headline-grabbing ways. Eastern Bank, the largest Massachusetts-based bank, had more than 180 separate data breaches last year, but only about a dozen of them affected more than 100 customers at a time.
Based on data provided by the state's Office of Consumer Affairs and Business regulation, such infractions are constant, but small-scale problem for banks.
Most of the about 1,000 bank breaches reported last year affected fewer than 500 customers.
Chuck Bauer, executive vice president at Natick-based Middlesex Savings Bank said “It’s pretty commonplace now.”
Bauer said, “It’s at a retailer, or there’s a theft of information from outside the bank. Then, we’re faced with the corrective action, and the challenge is making sure we’re able to identify the cards that were part of the data breach.”
"Once identified, the bank will either monitor compromised cards, or reissue them"
The largest numbers, of course, are connected to the Target breach late last year. More than 4,000 Middlesex Savings Bank customers were affected in that instance, while more than 3,300 East Boston Savings Bank customers had their account numbers, PIN numbers and card verification codes compromised in the Target breach.
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