Lost data files containing personal information is becoming a business pandemic

[whistle]

...I received a mass mailing letter yesterday which was dated May 21, 2008 from BNY Mellon Shareholders Services which manages several of my retirement accounts announcing that on February 27, 2008, almost three months ago now, one of their archive services vendors notified BNY Mellon that they were unable to account for "several boxes of data backup tapes" which they were transporting to an off-site storage facility. The missing tapes contained personal information including names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and shareholder/retirement fund account information.

BNY Mellon is not admitting to any improper access to these data, but they have implemented a free 12-month credit monitoring to all of their account customers as a precaution against identity theft, fraud and other improper access to confidential data.

This really pisses me off as this type of thing is happening far too frequently. Now that I have over 35 years of retirement funds built up so that I may get the benefits I and my now deceased wife had worked and saved so hard for over the years, there is a distinct possibility that my retirement fund pool is a risk of being taken away. What good is a credit monitoring service going do to prevent BushCo thugs and lackeys from transferring billions of dollars from retirement accounts to secret bank havens in Switzerland, Cayman Islands and other such financial account protectorates. The funds will be gone and no notification will happen until it is too late.

Taking these funds out before the maturity dates result in stiff penalties and major tax consequences. What the hell can an individual do to protect himself from these bastards? This has been happening far too frequently and I am beginning to suspect that white collar crime from the very top executives ENRON style are behind these incidents in collusion with criminals.

What are my options to protect myself and my financial security for retirement which is still several years away?

[DCKit]

1. Transfer the accounts to a different company...

or two. It may not be *easy* but it shouldn't be very painful.

TD Ameritrade pulled the same shit last year, and it was months before they notified their customers directly. I no longer do business with them.

[Gormy Cuss]

2. Short term, send angry letters and demand better data protection.

Long term, make data privacy laws a priority for local and national candidates. The reasons that private companies store SSN data in insecure locations is because it's cheaper and perfectly legal.

[angstlessk]

3. I believe if you leave off the word pandemic you just might have something there.

theft of informaiton is a business in itself. don't ask and don't tell where the info came from is bidness as usual!

[whistle]

4. Thanks all, I used pandemic because it reminded me of what John Dean said

...back in the Watergate Era of the Nixon Administration having a cancer in the presidency, perhaps I should have said there is a cancer affecting the economic security of working Americans.

These retirement fund administration companies which are hired by corporations are really a blight, a fungus on the hard working Americans which eat away the substance of our financial security right when we are most vulnerable and corporate America and our government let it happen without blinking an eye.

Then they want to take Social Security and turn those fund reserves over to the care of these same extortionists and we know that 33% will immediately disappear right off the top. Well we need to fight these bastards and make certain they can't take that one financial safety net away from us ever!