J.C. Penney reports compromised data for 650.000 credit card holders

The information was stored on a backup computer tape that was discovered missing last October. The spokesman of GE Money declared that the backup tape stored by data storage company Iron Mountain was never checked out but that it cannot be located. Jones stated that there was ‘no indication of theft or anything of that sort’, and no evidence of fraudulent activity on the accounts involved. He added that GE Money was paying for 12 months of credit-monitoring service for customers whose social security numbers were on the tape. Iron Mountain spokesman Dan O’Neil said it would take specialised skills for someone to gather the personal data from the tape. Retail company J.C. Penney said it had been told of the situation and referred for further inquiries to GE Money. GE Money reconstructed the missing tape and identified the people whose information was lost in 2 months. GE Money has notified consumers in batches of several thousand and told them to phone a call center set up to deal with the breach. The notification process will be completed by February 1st.  According to AP, many of the J.C. Penney cardholders whose data were compromised are not aware of the situation because notification letters were sent and signed by GE Money and not by J.C. Penney.The Identity Theft Resource Center says there was a six-fold increase last year in the number of records reported compromised in the US.