Price Tag Rises For Wholesale Theft Of CUData

WASHINGTON - (05/05/05) -- The cost of last year's theft ofconfidential customer data from BJ's Wholesale Club continues toescalate for affected credit unions, reaching at least $10 millionaccording to several sources. One credit union official testifybefore Congress yesterday on the data breach said the incident costCUNA Mutual Insurance Group around $5.7 million to reimburse 163credit unions for costs to recall hundreds of thousands of creditand debit cards, notify members, and repay tens of thousands offraudulent costs incurred as a result of the breach. And dozens ofother credit unions represented by third-party credit cardcompanies are also reported to have wracked up millions of dollarsin like expenses. CUNA Mutual has filed suit against BJs forreimbursement of the costs for what has become the largest theft ofpersonal information from the credit union industry.