For three months this winter, as Hannaford supermarket customers went about their usual grocery shopping, thieves were in the midst of an elaborate method of stealing their account numbers. Between December 7 and March 10, 4.2 million numbers were stolen from customers of Hannaford and a partner store in Florida. Since then, about 1,800 of those cards have been used fraudulently. When the theft was exposed this month, many customers immediately called their banks and asked if they were affected. The response from banks have been mixed-with some offering a blanket policy of new cards, and others only following a customer request.
Tom Candon is Deputy Commissioner of Banking. He spoke with VPR’s Jane Lindholm about banking industry standards and responsibilities in security breach cases in Vermont.