Identity Theft News

Aviva USA, Batteries.com report data breaches

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Insurance company Aviva USA and online merchant Batteries.com have reported data breaches and possible identity theft in recent filings with the New Hampshire Department of Justice.

Aviva said in a legal notice dated May 28th that malware discovered on one of its computers was responsible for the theft of customer information, including Social Security numbers (SSN), names and addresses.

As required under New Hampshire law, data breaches that affect residents of the state must be reported to the department. Letters from both companies were posted to the department's website in recent days.

Batteries.com reported to the state that its server was hacked for a period of several weeks beginning on February 25th until the company noticed the security breach sometime in March.

The company said the data breach resulted in the exposure of names, addresses and credit card information belonging to a number of Batteries.com customers, including 865 New Hampshire residents.

"A handful of Batteries.com customers also have reported unauthorized use of their credit card accounts that is believed to be tied to this hacking," the legal notice said.

Aviva said only one New Hampshire resident was affected by its data breach, but it would be notifying nationwide customers beginning May 29th and offering identity theft insurance coverage of $25,000.