JP Morgan Chase Bank admits to having lost a computer data tape containing customer information earlier this year. Bank officials have so far refused to reveal how many customers are affected by the data breach, how many customers have been notified, or even when the data breach occurred. But it appears they’ll have to answer those questions soon.

This week two Republican members of the Congressional Committee on Energy and Commerce, Rep. Joe Barton and Rep. George Radanovich, sent a letter to James L. Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase and Co. asking these questions and more.

In notifying the untold number of affected customers, the bank offered them one year of free enrollment in Chase Identity Protection. The congressmen asked whether the affected customers will be automatically charged for ongoing participation in the program, or will the program be automatically discontinued unless customers specify otherwise.

The committee members sent the letter October 7, and set a deadline of October 31 for a written response from the bank.

In July 2006 Chase Card Services (a division of JP Morgan Chase) notified 2.6 million current and former Circuit City credit card account holders that five computer tapes containing their personal information had been accidentally sent to the trash. It indicated that it believed the tapes were safely “buried in a landfill.”

In August 2005 JP Morgan Chase admitted that a laptop containing customers’ personal and financial information was stolen. The bank said then that the number of customers affected was unknown.