On May 18, 2023, the Credit Union of Southern California (“CU SoCal”) filed a notice of data breach with the Attorney General of Vermont after learning that an unauthorized party accessed emails and attachments information stored in an employee’s email account. Based on the company’s official filing, the incident resulted in an unauthorized party gaining access to consumers’ confidential information. After confirming that consumer data was leaked, CU SoCal began sending out data breach notification letters to all individuals who were impacted by the recent data security incident.

If you received a data breach notification from the Credit Union of Southern California, it is essential you understand what is at risk and what you can do about it. While the recent CU SoCal data breach letter doesn’t indicate which data types were leaked in the recent cyberattack, there is no doubt that the company possesses highly sensitive information belonging to its customers, including their financial account information and Social Security numbers. To learn more about how to protect yourself from becoming a victim of fraud or identity theft and what your legal options are in the wake of the Credit Union of Southern California data breach, please see our recent piece on the topic here.

What We Know So Far About the Credit Union of Southern California Breach

News of the Credit Union of Southern California data breach is still fresh; however, what we know at this point comes from the company’s filing with the Attorney General of Vermont. According to this source, on January 31, 2023, CU SoCal detected suspicious activity within an email account belonging to an employee of California Bear Credit Union (“CalBear”). At the time, CU SoCal and CalBear were in the process of finalizing a merger.

In response, CU SoCal secured the email account and began working with third-party data security specialists to investigate the incident.

On February 8, 2023, CU SoCal confirmed that the CalBear employee email account was accessed by an unauthorized party between January 11, 2023 and January 31, 2023, the day before the two credit unions were scheduled to become fully integrated. Further investigation confirmed that certain emails and attachments within the compromised email account contained confidential information pertaining to certain customers.

Upon discovering that sensitive consumer data was made available to an unauthorized party, the Credit Union of Southern California began to review the affected files to determine what information was compromised and which consumers were impacted. CU SoCal completed this process on March 16, 2023.

On May 18, 2023, the Credit Union of Southern California sent out data breach letters to all individuals whose information was compromised as a result of the recent data security incident.

More Information About Credit Union of Southern California

Founded in 1954 as Whittier Area Schools Federal Credit Union, Credit Union of Southern California is a financial institution based in Whittier, California. The credit union operates multiple locations in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Orange counties, as well as dozens of ATMs throughout the area. In 2023, CU SoCal merged with Cal Bear Credit Union. The company now serves over 140,000 customers. Credit Union of Southern California employs more than 215 people and generates approximately $110 million in annual revenue.