Debit Card Breach Affects Some In Central Indiana

INDIANAPOLIS -- A security breach has left some customers vulnerable to hackers as Sky Bank officials on Monday confirmed a problem with some debit cards.

Customer Dennis Martin told 6News he went to an ATM machine and discovered that he didn't have a dime left in his checking account, 6News' Cheryl Jackson reported.

Martin said $1,200 was drained from his account and expressed disappointment that he was not notified about the situation beforehand.

"We decided to do a balance inquiry and found out we were about $300 to the negative, which floored us," Martin said. "My God, something's happened."

Martin said he was surprised when the bank branch manager told him that they already knew that some customer account information was in the hands of hackers.

"She says, 'It's happened to a few people. I don't know how many.' They all knew all about it," Martin said.

Sky Bank officials confirmed Monday that they knew about the breach last week. In a statement, bank officials blamed the problem on the debit card's issuer, Master Card, and said it is not specific to their bank.

"The issue that Mr. Martin lists below relates to a card number compromise at an unidentified merchant, which means other bank's cardholders might be impacted as well," the statement said. "It is important to note that this was not a compromise to Sky Bank's debit card program or its security."

Martin said the bank branch manager told him that there was vulnerability in the system when Union Federal Bank became Sky Bank.

"What she said is, 'It went into a kind of limbo with the old Union Federal number and it went to an unsecured part of their system and the hacker was able to retrieve a list,'" Martin said.

Sky Bank officials denied that the events are connected and said that they were working to reissue new cards as soon as they could.

Martin said the bank did not offer to make good on the money drained from his account, but was told that he would hear from the bank by mail within 10 days.

Sky Bank officials said they are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.