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In a breach notification letter sent to the New Hampshire Attorney General, HSBC Finance Corporation has revealed that sensitive mortgage information of customers of a number of its subsidiaries has been potentially compromised.
The company says that personal information of 685 New Hampshire residents, about mortgage accounts, such as customers’ names, Social Security numbers, account numbers and possibly telephone numbers, were “inadvertently made accessible via the Internet.”
HSBC said that the notice was sent by HSBC Finance Corporation on behalf of its subsidiaries regarding a breach that it learned about on March 27th.
Its subsidiaries include Beneficial Financial I Inc., Beneficial Consumer Discount Company, Beneficial Homeowner Service Corporation, Beneficial Maine, Inc., Beneficial Massachusetts, Inc., Beneficial New Hampshire, Inc., Household Finance Corporation II, Household Finance Corporation of Alabama, Household Financial Center, Inc., and Household Realty Corporation.
HSBC said that it takes the issue seriously, and deeply regrets it happening. “We are conducting a thorough review of the potentially affected records and have implemented additional security measures designed to prevent a recurrence of such an incident,” it said. “We have ensured that the information is no longer accessible publicly. The company has notified law enforcement and the credit reporting agencies of the incident, and no delay in advising you has been caused by law enforcement notification.”
HSBC said it has ensured that the information is no longer publicly available. It began notifying affected customers on April 9 by letter and it's offered customers a free one-year subscription to Identity Guard, a credit monitoring and identity theft protection service.
