Australia’s Commonwealth Bank accepts data loss of 20 million customers

Commonwealth Bank of Australia has accepted the loss of bank records of nearly 20 million people. According to the BBC’s report, the data contained the account holders’ names, account numbers, addresses and other details, which was stored in two magnetic tapes, which was destroyed by a contractor in 2016. This is the latest scam of Australia’s largest lender.

In his statement on the Australian Stock Exchange, the bank said that it cannot confirm that the 15-year-old data tapes were completely destroyed. But it was said that an independent forensic investigation was done to determine the most probable conditions for disposal of the tape by the accounting firm KPMG.

It said that ‘tape had no password, PIN or other data, which could be used to scam through account. ‘Commonwealth Bank’s executive chief of the banking banking Angus Sullivan described the incident as “unacceptable” and apologized for the’ inconvenience and anxiety  caused by this incident to consumers.

“We take the protection of customer data very seriously and incidents like this are not acceptable,” Sullivan said. “I want to assure our customers that we have taken the steps necessary to protect their information and we apologise for any concern this incident may cause” added Sullivan.