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UCB takes measures to address security breach

By Eugenia Jones

Customers of United Cumberland Bank in McCreary County who were impacted by a security incident occurring in March, 2022 received letters last week notifying them about the incident.  All customers were not affected by the security breach, and only those who received letters should be concerned about the breach.

According to UCB President Michael Laxton, UCB recently concluded an investigation into a security incident that caused certain devices in their network to become unavailable.  Laxton stated that as soon as the bank’s IT staff discovered the incident through their established security monitoring protocols, the bank immediately began an investigation, engaged a cybersecurity team, and took measures to address the incident.  Federal law enforcement was also notified.

According to Laxton, there was unauthorized access to the bank’s network between March 21, 2022 and March 27, 2022.  During that time, an unauthorized party obtained files stored on the bank’s file server.  In conducting a review of those files, it was later determined the files contained information about some customers.  In some cases, the information consisted of just names and account numbers while in other cases, the information included names, account numbers, social security numbers and/or driver’s license numbers.

UCB personnel reviewed records to obtain contact information for the customers who were impacted by the incident and notified those customers in a letter written in July 2022.  Additionally, the bank set up a dedicated, third-party call center that affected individuals can call with questions and is offering a complimentary credit monitoring service to individuals whose Social Security number or driver’s license number was involved.

UCB encourages those impacted (and others) to remain vigilant by reviewing financial statements for any unauthorized activity.  Immediately report any unauthorized activity to your financial institution.  If desired or recommended by bank personnel, customers impacted by the security incident can also take additional steps to prevent identity theft by reviewing account statements and free credit reports over an extended period of time for any unauthorized activity and/or setting up fraud alerts and credit or security freezes.  For more information on these options, contact UCB at 376-0036.

Laxton noted that even prior to this incident, the bank has always encouraged customers to use online and mobile banking tools, including:  credit and balance/activity monitoring tools with real-time alerts, numerous custom notifications, real-time debit card alerts, debit card controls (limits, merchant types, etc.) and ability to turn off/on debit cards.

Laxton stated UCB takes the incident very seriously and is committed to the security of their network and customer information.  

“To help prevent something like this from happening again, we are taking steps to further enhance the security of our network, including additional monitoring and security scanning.”

Photo by Derek Dobbs

United Cumberland Bank President Michael Laxton stated UCB takes a recent security incident very seriously and is committed to the security of their network and customer information. 

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