Citigroup Inc said a cyber attack in May affected almost twice as many accounts as the bank's figures had initially suggested, as major US lenders come under growing pressure from lawmakers to improve account security.
A total of 3,60,083 North American Citigroup credit card accounts were affected by the breach, the third-largest US bank by assets said in a statement released late on Wednesday.
Of those affected, some 2,17,657 customers were reissued with new cards along with a notification letter, while the remaining accounts were either inactive or had already received new cards earlier, the bank added.
Citigroup had earlier said that about 1 per cent of its North American accounts were affected. The bank's annual report puts the total number of its customers at 21 million.
'It is mainly due to the actual number of accounts being more than what's in the 2010 annual report as well as variances such as some of the accounts being closed,' United States-based Citi spokesman Sean Kevelighan said in an emailed response.
Customers had their names, account numbers and contact information accessed, but Citi said that 'data critical to commit fraud was not compromised' and that other consumer banking online systems were not accessed.
source:NewAge
