TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Globe and Worcester T&G Customer Credit Info Mistakenly Released

Globe and Worcester T&G Customer Credit Info Mistakenly Released

Monty Solomon (monty@roscom.com)
Wed, 1 Feb 2006 00:11:34 -0500

By Robert Gavin, Globe Staff | January 31, 2006

Credit and bank card numbers of as many as 240,000 subscribers of The
Boston Globe and Worcester Telegram & Gazette were inadvertently
distributed with bundles of T&G newspapers on Sunday, officials of the
newspapers said Tuesday.

The confidential information was on the back of paper used in wrapping
newspaper bundles for distribution to carriers and retailers. As many
as 9,000 bundles of the T&G, wrapped in paper containing subscribers'
names and their confidential information, were distributed Sunday to
2,000 retailers and 390 carriers in the Worcester area, said Alfred
S. Larkin Jr., spokesman for the Globe.

In addition, routing information for personal checks of 1,100 T&G
subscribers also may have been inadvertently released.

The Globe and T&G, which are both owned by The New York Times Co.,
share a computer system.

The release of the data is another in a long list of high-profile
incidents in which companies, universities, and federal and state
agencies have had sensitive financial information lost or stolen.

Globe and T&G officials said the newspapers have notified the four
major credit card companies -- American Express, Discover, MasterCard,
and Visa -- of the problem. The newspapers will turn over the card
numbers of subscribers who may have been affected to the companies
upon request. As of last night, Mastercard and Visa have asked for the
details. The newspapers are doing the same thing with banks of
customers who may be affected.

About 227,000 Globe subscribers pay by credit or bank cards, although
it's unclear exactly how many had their information released. Larkin,
however, said a reconstruction of the errors that took place suggests
a majority of those affected are Globe subscribers.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/01/31/globe_and_worcester_tg_customer_credit_info_mistakenly_released/

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