Webster Bank data breach impacts thousands

Thousands of customers with Stamford-headquartered Webster Bank (NYSE:WBS) may have had their personal data compromised in a data breach.

Webster reported the breach occurred between Nov. 27, 2022, and Jan. 22, 2023, with the digital miscreants targeting Guardian Analytics, a third-party vendor that offers fraud protection services. According to the bank, “the unauthorized third parties acquired files that contained Webster clients”™ personal information from Guardian”™s systems and later posted the acquired files on the internet.”

The Office of Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said the data breach impacted 153,754 people in the state, with roughly 36,000 Webster customers having their name, account number, and Social Security number exposed.

In compliance with state law, Webster will provide two years of credit monitoring for those who were impacted.

Update: After this article was published, Webster Bank provided the following statement to the Business Journals: “Guardian Analytics, a third-party vendor that provides fraud monitoring services experienced a data security incident, which resulted in an unauthorized release of certain information. All impacted clients have been sent letters on how to protect their information going forward. Webster”™s own systems have not been compromised nor were they impacted. We apologize for the inconvenience this caused our clients and disappointed this occurred with this vendor.”