Data breach could affect 2 million

Countywide Home Loans is offering two years of free credit monitoring to customers who may have had their personal information stolen in a security breach involving as many as 2 million or more borrowers.

The FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles last month announced the arrest of Rene L. Rebollo Jr., 36, a former senior financial analyst at Countrywide Home Loan's subprime mortgage division, Full Spectrum Lending, in Pasadena, Calif.

Over the course of two years, Rebollo allegedly made up to $70,000 selling information to third parties including the names, addresses and Social Security numbers of Countrywide customers that he accessed from a company computer and downloaded onto portable flash drives. Rebollo pled not guilty Aug. 25.

Citing court documents, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported that Rebollo told investigators he downloaded 20,000 customer profiles a week for two years, meaning the personal information of more than 2 million borrowers may have been compromised. The total number of affected borrowers could be less if some accounts were downloaded more than once, and a Countrywide spokeswoman said there's no evidence that any customers have been victims of identity theft as a result of the breach.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal announced last week that Countrywide has promised his office that the company would provide compensation for consumers harmed by the information breach. Blumenthal said he is seeking written guarantees that consumers "will be protected for years to come."

At least 28,123 Connecticut residents were among those whose private data was stolen, Blumenthal said.

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