National Bank Laptop & Mortgage Data Stolen Headquarters

The National Bank of Canada has reported that a laptop with client information on mortgage loads was stolen from their Montreal headquarters. According to Bloombeg the bank stated that the information included a “high percentage of our customers who have mortgages” but that  it did not have personal information such as birthdays, credit card numbers or signatures…just account and mortgage information. The bank also stated that the laptop was “password protected”.

First off a primary concern should be that this was stolen from their headquarters, which indicates a targeted attack probably for the information that was on the laptop. Second, there was no mention of encryption or other security software, only that it was password protection, which we know provides no security whatsoever once a thief has physical posession of the device and they are after the data on it. Banks should know better and should have security policies in place to protect ANY customer data.