November 27, 2004
CIBC still doesn't get it
Despite the media attention given to the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce fax scandal, the bank continued to send people's confidential information to a scrap yard in West Virginia yesterday. That prompted the bank to ban all faxing of confidential information late yesterday afternoon. It says it will now transport sensitive personal information via internal courier.
That would have been the right thing to do three years ago when they first found out about the problem, and might even have been a good idea yesterday morning, but action came too late. It adds an exclamation point to the concerns I expressed yesterday that this bank just doesn't get it.
It doesn't understand that it lucked out when the faxes went to Wade Peer, the scrap yard owner, who seems an ethical type and hasn't misused the information. It doesn't understand that this one breach of security that was effectively ignored by the bank has led many customers to wonder where else the bank has sent their private information. Most worrisome, it doesn't understand that its inaction demonstrates the bank doesn't take the privacy of account holders seriously.
Further Reading:
CIBC issues statement regarding misdirected faxes (CIBC Statement)
CIBC orders halt to faxing customer data (CTV News)
CIBC orders companywide halt to faxes (Canadian Press)
CIBC gets off lightly in fax gaffe (Toronto Sun)
Posted by maxthecat at November 27, 2004 10:55 AM
http://www.maxsmewsings.com/mt/archives/2004/11/cibc_still_doesnt_get_it.php