A server containing personal information for 33,800 members of Schools Financial Credit Union was stolen from a Lake Forest, Calif.-based marketing company on July 9, but a spokesperson for the credit union reported that as of mid-December, there has been no evidence of identity theft.
Jim Jordan, president and CEO of Schools Financial CU, said the credit union "watched our accesses very carefully for any compromises in our data. There has not been any fraud related to this computer equipment, to our knowledge."
"It has been an expensive experience," he continued. "In addition to mailing costs, we spent approximately $200,000 on purchasing Experian's 'credit manager' credit-monitoring product for all members whose information was on the server. Plus, there were many hours of staff resources spent on fielding thousands of telephone calls and thousands of member questions."
"It was a major undertaking," he added.
When The Credit Union Journal first reported this story in August, both Jordan and Mark DeBellis, president of the financial services division of PSB, The Marketing SuperSource, said police investigators characterized the crime as a simple theft, rather than an attempted identity theft.
DeBellis said the server-whose contents were password protected-was targeted simply because it was by a door which was kicked in.
Jordan said Schools Financial CU received a letter from PSB July 14, stating member records may have been compromised and the company was investigating. On July 20, PSB confirmed the personal information for 33,800 of Schools Financial's 112,000 members was on the stolen server.
The two companies worked over the weekend of July 23-25 to compile a list of affected members. On Monday, July 26, Schools Financial sent a letter to the members whose names, account numbers and Social Security Numbers were in the server informing them of the theft.
According to Jordan, Schools Financial CU no longer works with PSB. He declined to say if the end of the relationship was caused by the theft.
