248,000 in N.C. affected by lost personal data

RALEIGH -- About 248,000 North Carolinians are among those whose personal information was included in tapes lost by the Bank of New York Mellon, the state Attorney General's Office said today.

The company is notifying people affected by the security breach and offering them two years of credit monitoring for free.

In a news release today, state Attorney General Roy Cooper recommended that consumers accept the free credit monitoring as well as notify credit bureaus, consider placing a freeze on their credit and continue checking their credit frequently.

BNY Mellon serves as a stock transfer agent for public companies and handles corporate transactions.

In May, BNY Mellon reported that it had lost backup tapes containing personal information about 4 million consumers nationwide, including 74,000 in North Carolina. The company later realized that the breach actually affected 12 million consumers.

State law requires businesses as well as state and local governments to notify consumers if a security breach may have compromised their personal information. Cooper's office said the BNY breach was the largest in recent years.

A total of 260 breaches that involved information about 1.5 million North Carolina consumers have been reported since the laws took effect in 2005 and 2006, the attorney general said.

Almost half the breaches involved the theft of laptops, computers or other equipment containing personal information. Nearly 17 percent of breaches were caused by unauthorized release or display of information, and almost 20 percent were the result of hackers.

Nearly half of the breaches were reported by the financial services and insurance industry, while close to 10 percent were reported by state and local government agencies.