Robinhood trading app hit by data breach affecting seven million
News and information from the Advent IM team.
- by Olivia Lawlor-Blackburn
- Industry News
US share-trading app Robinhood has been hit by a security breach that has exposed the names or email addresses of more than seven million people.
The company says the breach affected “a limited amount of personal information for a portion of our customers”.
And it does not believe the most sensitive information it gathers – US social security numbers and financial information – was revealed.
Robinhood said it had rejected a demand for payment and reported the attack.
The breach happened on 3 November through what’s known as “social engineering” – a specifically targeted and convincing scam designed to trick an employee into divulging login details or other sensitive information.
It affected five million people whose email addresses were compromised and the full names of a further two million.
Robinhood also said a much smaller group of about 310 people had much more information exposed – including names, dates of birth, and US zip codes.
A further 10 or so had “more extensive account details revealed”, it said.
Read via BBC