On January 20, 2023, the Bank of Eastern Oregon (“BEO”) filed notice of a data breach with the Attorney General of Montana after learning that employee email accounts containing confidential customer information were accessed by an unauthorized party. Based on the company’s official filing, the incident resulted in an unauthorized party gaining access to consumers’ sensitive information. However, the exact data types that were leaked have not yet been confirmed by BEO. After confirming that consumer data was leaked, BEO began sending out data breach notification letters to all individuals who were impacted by the recent data security incident.
When you trust a bank or credit union with your money, you assume that the institution has done everything possible to protect your sensitive information, including your bank account numbers and Social Security number. However, news of the recent Bank of Eastern Oregon may call into question the company’s data security practices. As we’ve discussed in prior posts, hackers and other cybercriminals carry out these data breaches to obtain confidential consumer information they can use to commit fraud or sell to a third-party who plans on doing the same. However, as a data breach victim, there are certain steps you can take to reduce the risk of fraud. And, if the pending investigation into the Bank of Eastern Oregon breach reveals that the company was negligent in how it handled your information, it may be liable to you through a data breach lawsuit.
What We Know So Far About the Bank of Eastern Oregon Breach
The available information regarding the Bank of Eastern Oregon breach comes from the company’s filing with the Montana Attorney General’s office. According to this source, on September 15, 2022, BEO detected unusual activity within certain employee email accounts. In response, the bank secured the affected email accounts and launched an investigation into the incident with the assistance of a cybersecurity firm.
Through this investigation, the Bank of Eastern Oregon learned that unauthorized actors were able to gain access to two employee email accounts between September 8, 2022 and September 14, 2022. It was also confirmed that these email accounts contained sensitive information belonging to certain customers.
Upon discovering that sensitive consumer data was made available to an unauthorized party, the Bank of Eastern Oregon began to review the affected files to determine what information was compromised and which consumers were impacted. Bank of Eastern Oregon completed this process on January 11, 2023. However, the bank has yet to publicly disclose what data types were contained in the compromised email accounts.
On January 20, 2023, the Bank of Eastern Oregon sent out data breach letters to all individuals whose information was compromised as a result of the recent data security incident.
More Information About the Bank of Eastern Oregon
Founded in 1945, the Bank of Eastern Oregon is a financial institution located in Heppner, Oregon. Bank of Eastern Oregon serves customers through 24 branches in eastern Oregon and eastern Washington. The bank offers individual and business checking and savings accounts, agricultural and commercial loans, home mortgages and more. Bank of Eastern Oregon employs more than 75 people and generates approximately $31 million in annual revenue.
