 |
| Photo Credit: Thinkstock via BBC. |
BOSTON (AP) — Hackers stole personal data including Social Security numbers, addresses and account numbers of home mortgage holders at KeyBank, the bank reports, in the breach of a third-party vendor that serves multiple corporate clients.
The hackers
obtained the information on July 5 after breaking into computers at the
insurance services provider Overby-Seawell Company, according to a letter that
Cleveland-based KeyBank sent to affected residential mortgage customers.
KeyBank,
which operates in 15 states and has close to $200 billion in assets, would not
say how many of its customers were affected or answer any other questions about
the breach. In a statement, it said it was notified of the data theft on Aug. 4
and KeyBank systems and operations were unaffected.
Overby-Seawell
did not respond to phone messages and emails sent to executives seeking
comment. In the statement sent Friday to The Associated Press, KeyBank said
Kennesaw, Georgia-based Overby-Seawell “suffered a cybersecurity incident that
compromised data of its corporate clients.” It did not elaborate.
According to
its website, Overby-Seawell’s customers include banks, credit unions, mortgage
servicers, finance companies and property investors. Its products include a
tracking system for real-time insurance monitoring that can be integrated with
other financial industry software platforms.
In an Aug.
26 letter shared with the AP by an affected mortgage-holder, KeyBank said the
information acquired in the Overby-Seawell breach related to their mortgage
includes their name, address, mortgage account number and the first eight
digits of their nine-digit Social Security number.
That’s
plenty of information for identity thieves to commit serious fraud.
“We take
this matter very seriously and have notified all affected individuals,” KeyBank
said in the letter.
KeyBank said
Overby-Seawell had notified law enforcement and was investigating the breach
with the help of third-party cybersecurity experts. It encouraged the mortgage
holder to sign up for free fraud monitoring.