Sovereign Bank reports data theft

Sovereign Bank is warning thousands of its customers that some of their account information might have been stolen in the theft of three employees' laptop computers earlier this month.

Bank spokesman Carl Brown declined to specify precisely how many customers might have been affected other than to say the total represented about 1 percent of the bank's customers. With 800 branches in New England and the mid-Atlantic, Sovereign is America's 18th-largest bank.

Brown said the laptops were stolen from three employees' cars at two locations in Massachusetts, which he declined to identify. He said police and bank officials have each launched investigations. The computers have not been recovered.

On Aug. 21, Sovereign sent letters to the customers who it believes might have been affected, advising them to closely monitor their accounts and notify the bank of any problems. So far, no accounts appear to have been breached, Brown said.

The stolen data might have included tax identification numbers and account information, he said, as well as customers' names and addresses.

Sovereign customer David Brenneke of New Bedford said yesterday that he received the letter Friday and immediately called a customer service representative, who told him that 30,000 of the letters had been sent out.

Brenneke said he was not worried about his identity being stolen because the bank would be held responsible, but was upset with ``sloppy management."

``My wife and I were upset because if you think of a bank, everything is supposed to be held under the strictest security, and it seems like the banks are going the other way," said Brenneke, 68, a retired snack vendor. ``Now apparently, the banks want to get the most work they can out of their managers, so the managers take the laptops home. . . . I'm just upset with their practices. To me, it just seems very unbusinesslike."

The bank's letter says its employees will be ``extra cautious when handling transactions on your account."

``Our investigation has revealed that at one time, certain files which were stored on these laptops contained some of your personal account information," the letter states.

``However, we strongly believe that these files were deleted prior to the theft. Even though we have every reason to believe that these files were deleted, as an additional protection, we have programmed onto our systems a flag, which recognizes the security of your account information might have been affected."

The stolen Sovereign computers recalled several similar thefts in recent months.

In May, a burglar stole a laptop computer from the Aspen Hill, Md., home of a data analyst with the federal US Department of Veterans Affairs. The computer, which contained personal data on about 26.5 million military personnel, was later recovered, and the FBI said that no information had been stolen.

In March, Fidelity Investments said a laptop computer with personal data on 196,000 retirement account customers was stolen, prompting it to send out security alerts to affected individuals.