CUNA told Credit Union Times that it has received more than 200 responses from credit unions in a new online survey concerning the impact of the Target security breach on its members.
“We expect those numbers to increase,” said Pat Keefe, vice president of communications at CUNA, on Monday.
CUNA is collecting data relating to the costs incurred by credit unions due to the breach.
“We have a number of questions related to how and when they were informed of the breach, how many of their members cards have been affected; some questions on some of the actions they have taken or plan to take with respect to the cards,” said Bill Hampel, CUNA senior vice president of research and policy analysis and chief economist, during a Monday conference call.
“We also ask them for some information on the cost that they have incurred in terms of either reissuing cards or having to increase staff for increased call volume,” he added.
Keefe said CUNA plans to make the aggregated results of the survey available to its members, lawmakers, federal regulators and the media.
“We expect to make results of our survey available to those who can assist in limiting the costs to credit unions of these breaches in the future – including lawmakers, regulators, the media and our members,” he said. “The data we share will be the aggregated results, we will not share the data of individual credit unions.”
CUNA said the survey would help the group better represent credit union interests.
“We want to know – because the scope of this breach is so big (the second largest, in terms of total persons affected), the costs to credit unions (and ultimately to their members) are so immense for replacing cards and reimbursing members who have lost funds due to fraudulent transactions, and because Congress is taking notice of this whole affair–particularly the costs of it all,” CUNA President/CEO Bill Cheney wrote in the latest edition of The Cheney Report.
Both CUNA and NAFCU have called for congressional hearings on data security issues in light of the Target security breach that affected approximately 40 million customers.
“When hearings take place, the information we gather through our survey will be vital for expressing the impact of this event on credit unions and their members–and urging Congress to consider our ongoing concerns of the responsibility of merchants to protect data, and be accountable for the consequences of data breaches when they occur,” said CUNA President/CEO Bill Cheney.
“Financial institutions, including credit unions, have been subject to standards on data security since the passage of Gramm-Leach-Bliley. However, retailers and many other entities that handle sensitive personal financial data are not subject to these same standards, and they become victims of data breaches and data theft all too often,” NAFCU President/CEO Dan Berger said in a letter on Dec. 20 to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
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