This past month many customers of Honda Canada received letters from the company stating that their personal information such as their names, addresses and Vehicle Identification Numbers had been lost to hackers.
Apologizing for their inability to protect customer information, the company further stated that the intrusion which had occurred in March, did not involve the loss of information typically used for identity theft like birth dates, telephone numbers, email addresses, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, driver’s license numbers, social insurance numbers, dollar amounts of Honda Financial Services financing or payments.
However, a few days later, they added a “and in a small number of cases, Honda Financial Services (“HFS”) account numbers” to the statement on their website. The intrusion was discovered when the company found an unusual volume of usage in their myHonda and myAcura websites. The company has thus warned customers to watch carefully for fraud or contact from parties claiming to be related to Honda or Honda Finance. It’s a good thing the company notified the affected customers but there is one question I just can’t help but ask.
Why did the company keep the affected customers in the dark for two whole months?
Okay, the company’s claim that it: “needed to assess the gravity of the situation and determine exactly what data may have been stolen,” sounds quite reasonable, but still it has not been as forthright as it claims to be. The addition to this statement with: “and in a small number of cases, Honda Financial Services (“HFS”) account numbers” statement proves this. So, 283,000 record losses and two months after the breach, the company is facing a lawsuit worth $200 million for failure to protect personal and confidential information and failure to notify customers in “a reasonable amount of time.”
It is believed that the stolen data was left behind after a mailing campaign in 2009 and not properly deleted. So, what does this teach us? To take the appropriate steps to secure our customers’ data and spare ourselves all the trouble and even lawsuits.
Are you concerned about the security of your client information? Idealogical specializes in making sure all your important business data and customer records are as secure as possible. Give us a call today and talk with us about a review of your business security needs.
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