Three of the four tapes have been recovered, and the data contained on them was not accessed, said spokeswoman Katrina Becker.
During the end of February, the tapes were lost by a national shipping company when a package containing them broke, said Becker, who declined to name the shipper. She said that combined efforts between the shipper and Ameritrade led to the recovery of three of the four tapes within the shipping facility.
"It is very likely that the fourth tape was lost or destroyed," she said. "We don't believe any foul play was involved."
The tapes contained data on 200,000 clients, collected between 2000-2003. The data was compressed, and could only be accessed with special equipment, according to Becker. While she did not offer details about the specific data on the tapes, she did say that Social Security numbers might have been among them for some clients.
Ameritrade is currently alerting the clients it believes would have been affected. In the interest of security, Becker declined to elaborate on how they were being contacted – whether via e-mail or traditional mail. Nor did she disclose which organizations the Omaha, NE-based firm had been working with, saying only that it had been investigating in conjunction with authorities.
The Ameritrade data loss comes on the heels of prominent data breaches from companies such as ChoicePoint, Bank of America, LexisNexis and DSW Shoe Warehouse.
