Hackers broke into bank card data: Citigroup

CYBER TARGET :Names, account numbers and contact data for 1 percent of its North American clients were exposed, but not card security codes

Citigroup Inc said computer hackers breached the bank’s network and accessed the data of about 200,000 bank card holders in North America, the latest of a string of cyber attacks on high-profile companies.

Citi said the names of customers, account numbers and contact information, including e-mail addresses, were viewed in the breach, which the Financial Times said was discovered by the bank early last month.

However, Citi said other information such as birthdates, social security numbers, card expiration dates and card security codes (CVV) were not compromised.

“We are contacting customers whose information was impacted. Citi has implemented enhanced procedures to prevent a recurrence of this type of event,” Sean Kevelighan, a US-based spokesman, said by e-mail. “For the security of these customers, we are not disclosing further details.”

In the brief e-mail statement, Citi did not say how the breach had occurred.

Another Citi spokesman, James Griffiths in Hong Kong, said the breach had affected 1 percent of North American card customers, which the bank’s annual report says total 21 million.

Citigroup joins a growing list of companies that have suffered cyber attacks.

Data storage firm EMC Ltd this week offered to replace millions of electronic keys after hackers used data from its RSA security division to break into the network of arms supplier and information technology provider Lockheed Martin, while Google Inc last week revealed a major attack on its Gmail accounts targeting, among others, senior US government officials that it said appeared to originate in China.

In Tokyo, Sony said it would restore all Qriocity online music and video distribution services yesterday everywhere except Japan, after shutting it and its PlayStation Network down in April due to hacker attacks.

The company said in a statement that it would announce the restoration of Qriocity services in Japan when they become available.

Sony has already restored all PlayStation Network services everywhere except Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea, enabling users in the Americas and Europe and much of Asia to buy and download games online.

Meanwhile, Sony Marketing, the Tokyo-based company that markets and sells Sony products in Japan, said yesterday that an unidentified person might have stolen “Sony points” from customers’ accounts by using their e-mail addresses.

That person may have exchanged the points worth about ￥280,000 (US$3,500 ) for shopping coupons that could be used to buy Sony products, the company said.

A total of 95 e-mail addresses were involved in the case, but the company said there was “no trace of leakage from our company of personal information including e-mail addresses and passwords,” Sony Marketing said.

A Sony spokesman said there was no evidence that the marketing firm’s security had been breached but how the points were stolen was yet to be investigated.