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Lending Tree is getting sued for a dreaded, TJ-Max-esqe data breach.  Apparently caused by some of their partners, Lending Tree managed to lose names and social security numbers for a number of their clients.  It serves a great reminder, that even the biggest institutions are not immune for data theft.  This is particularly important to remember when dealing with all of the new PFM’s on the scene. 

While we love Wesabe and Mint, data breaches can happen to anyone.  The services Mint provides are really cool and pretty, but what happens if they were to get breached for whatever reason.  A Mint employee has a weak password that gets cracked, Yodlee screws up and loses info; it could be anything.  Wesabe is in a little better shape just because they provide alternative methods of importing your data, but if you import your data automatically, your are still storing your info with them.  Both companies do go out of their way to inform their users about the data security they have in place, but just as Lending Tree had many of the same technologies and processes, they won’t be immune forever.

I personally use both Mint and Wesabe and I have faith that they are doing everything possible to prevent bad things from happening.  Buy go ask the old CTO of TJ Max and I’m sure he thought they were doing a good job protecting their data.