October 2, 2015
The American Bankers Association, the financial-industry lobbying giant that wants laws forcing retailers to improve data protection, made two announcements Thursday: It’s observing National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. And hackers have breached its system.
“ABA has learned that e-mail addresses and passwords used to make purchases or register for events through aba.com’s shopping cart have been compromised,” the organization wrote in an e-mail to people who’ve used the online checkout system. “Like the banks we serve, ABA takes data security very seriously. We also recognize that despite significant security measures, breaches can and do occur.”
A spokeswoman for the ABA confirmed the e-mail’s contents.
The incident may turn out to be relatively minor compared with the troves of sensitive information such as credit-card numbers that some big retailers have lost by the millions over the past few years. The ABA said that in its case, at least 6,400 records comprising shopping cart user names and passwords were posted online.