Bank of America security breach forces company to issue new credit cards

Consumers may be extra careful regarding their personal and financial information, but sometimes incidents are out of their hands. Bank of America was recently affected by an online security breach suffered by an unidentified third-party merchant.

"As part of our routine fraud monitoring, if we believe a customer's card may have been compromised at a third-party location, we will notify the customer and block and reissue the card, which is what happened in this case," said Bank of America spokeswoman Betty Riess.

She also said the company is currently addressing the incident, which prompted the bank to issue new credit cards to protect against further fraudulent activity.

Consumer records are generally the most targeted information during a security breach. In 2011, nearly 90 percent of files monitored during such incidents consisted of consumer data , according to a study by a security vendor. The company studied more than 300 data breach incidents and 2,000 tests and concluded that intellectual property was No. 2 on the list, as it was involved in 6 percent of all attacks.