Arkansas Bank Alerts Customers After Vendor Sent File to Wrong Recipient

An Arkansas bank is alerting customers after a third-party vendor sent a file containing Social Security numbers and account information to the wrong employee at another financial institution.

Centennial Bank, which includes its Happy State Bank division, said an employee at Fidelity Information Services (FIS) was preparing a secure email when the file was routed to an unintended recipient who happened to have the same first name as the intended bank contact.

A filing with the Massachusetts Attorney General indicates that 19 people in the state are affected.

The file may have contained names, mailing addresses, dates of birth, account numbers, balances, transaction details, tax information and Social Security numbers.

The unintended recipient opened the file, recognized the error and notified FIS. FIS then informed the bank.

The recipient confirmed deletion of the file, and the recipient institution later issued a Certificate of Destruction stating that copies were destroyed and the information was not used or shared.

FIS says it recalled the email, retrained the employee and added extra validation steps, while the bank placed enhanced monitoring on the affected accounts.

The bank says there is no indication the information was misused. In its notification letter, it described the disclosure as follows:

“We are writing to inform you of an incident that may have resulted in the unauthorized disclosure of some of your personal information, including your Social Security number.”

Official notices are offering 24 months of complimentary identity monitoring through Epiq Credit Monitoring Solutions.