Payroll processing firm Ceridian Corp. hacked
A hacker recently attacked the payroll processing firm Ceridian Corp. of Bloomington, Minn. and gained access to sensitive information of employees working at 1,900 companies nationwide.How many victims? 27,000.
What type of personal information? Names, Social Security numbers, and, in some cases, birth dates and bank accounts.
What happened? A hacker attacked Ceridian's internet payroll system on Dec. 22 and 23.
Details: The breach affects less than one-tenth of one percent of the employees for whom Ceridian provides payroll services.
This is the second security breach at Ceridian in three years. In 2007, a former employee stole financial information.
Quote: "We took immediate preventive steps to ensure no further incident of this type would occur," said Keith Peterson, spokesman for Ceridian. "While the total number of employees affected is small, in our minds one is too many, and we are handling this incident according to our established protocol."
What was the response? The breach was reported to the FBI and local authorities. In addition, affected individuals have been notified.
Source: StarTribune.com, Minneapolis Star Tribune, “Hacker attacks Ceridian; data from 27,000 at risk,” Feb. 3, 2010.
