1.5 Million SunTrust Clients Exposed After Employee Theft

ATLANTA, GA — The accounts of 1.5 million SunTrust Banks customers may have been exposed in a recent data breach caused by a former employee, the bank announced Friday.

In a news release, the Atlanta-based bank said it "became aware of potential theft by a former employee of information from some of its contact lists." The company is notifying about 1.5 million customers that information including their names, addresses, phone numbers and account balances may have been exposed.

In an email Friday, a SunTrust spokesman said the former employee is believed to have inappropriately printed out information from client contact lists for use outside the company.

The contact lists did not contain information like Social Security numbers, account numbers, PINs, user ID numbers, passwords or driver's license information, SunTrust said.

(For more news like this, find your local Patch here. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app; download the free Patch Android app here.)

The bank is working with law-enforcement and outside experts in response to the theft.

"Ensuring personal information security is fundamental to our purpose as a company of advancing financial well-being," said Bill Rogers, SunTrust chairman and CEO, in the release. "We apologize to clients who may have been affected by this. We have heightened our monitoring of accounts and increased other security measures."

Rogers said no "significant fraudulent activity" has been detected yet, but assured clients they will not be held responsible for any loss to their accounts stemming from the breach.

After the breach, SunTrust is offering clients free identity-theft protection.

The IDnotify product by Experian is being offered in addition to existing SunTrust security tools. It includes credit monitoring, an annual credit report, identity-theft insurance up to $1 million, identity-restoration help and dark Web monitoring.

Clients can log in to online banking at the SunTrust website to enroll.

SunTrust has more than 1,400 branches and operates more than 2,100 ATMs in 11 states — Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia — and Washington D.C.

Photo via Shutterstock