Thursday, March 17, 2016

American Express Admits to Theft of Customer Data Three Years Late

American Express Admits to Theft of Customer Data Three Years Late

American Express has warned its customers that they many have had their personal information stolen during a data breach—which happened in 2013.

The company explained to California’s attorney general in a letter sent on March 10th that one of its third-party service providers suffered a data breach. It explains that “account information of some of our Card Members, including some of your account information, may have been involved.”

The breach occurred on Saturday December 7th in 2013. Quite why there was such a huge delay in informing people is unclear—but it is awful form.

But don’t worry! Because American Express reassures everyone by adding that “it is important to note that American Express owned or controlled systems were not compromised by this incident.” Well, thank goodness for that.

The credit card company does say that it’s monitoring accounts for fraud. But given the time lags involved with owning up to the news, you’d probably be best served keeping an eye on your account yourself.


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