CFPB Employee Breached Data of 256,000 Consumers

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) revealed today that on of its former employees sent the personal information of over 250,000 individuals to their personal email account. The agency called the privacy breach “completely unacceptable.”

The data sent by the employee, who was cleared to access the information in their day-to-day duties, included two spreadsheets with transaction-specific account numbers for around 256,000 individuals.

The bureau found personally identifiable information relating to customers of seven institutions that had been forwarded by a staffer who is no longer employed at the CFPB, it said in a statement.

There is no evidence so far that the personal data was shared beyond the former employees email.

The incident was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

CFPB is often a great tool when dealing with financial institutions. It is a federal government agency that collects consumer complaints about credit cards, mortgages, bank accounts, student loans, consumer loans, credit reporting, money transfers, and debt collection. Learn more on when you should file a CFPB complaint, and how to do it.