On November 17, Facebook Inc.’s finance officer’s car was robbed by breaking the car window. Several hard drives that contain unencrypted banking information of approximately 29,000 current and former Facebook employees started to work for Facebook since 2018 was stolen. The employee’s name, remittance details, salary, bonus, stock, and social security code are included. However, It does not include any user information.
On November 29, Facebook found that these stolen hard drives contain unencrypted banking information through “forensic investigation”. However, Facebook notified the affected employees by email on December 13. Currently, these employees are being provided with identity information theft prevention and credit monitoring services. Facebook stated that the financial personnel involved should not take the hard drive out of the office, and appropriate disciplinary action had been taken. Until now, Facebook has neither recovered the lost information nor found the stolen hard drives.
According to Facebook’s spokeswoman, “We worked with law enforcement as they investigated a recent car break-in and theft of an employee’s bag containing company equipment with employee payroll information stored on it. We have seen no evidence of abuse and believe this was a smash and grab crime rather than an attempt to steal employee information.”
Here are some tips if your bank information is comprised:
- Use Your Card Wisely: Only use your card on trusted as well as secure HTTPS sites as it can lower your cyber risk. In addition, you should beware of the skimmers on some ATMs.
- Monitor Your Accounts: Daily or weekly check the transactions on your debit cards in order to catch the fraudulent activity.
Call the bank immediately and report the unauthorized charges. - Check Your Credit Report: Similar to your card transactions, your credit report should also be monitored regularly as hackers may use your personal info they stole before to open new accounts.
Contact LIFARS.com Immediately if Your
Organization was Hit with a Data Breach
Credits:
bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-12-13/thief-stole-payroll-data-for-thousands-of-facebook-employees
thebalance.com/if-credit-card-information-has-been-compromised-2386314
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