New York – Investment firm Scottrade Inc. announced it has been victim of massive data breach between 2013 and early 2014, when hackers gained access to data of nearly 4.6 million consumers. Scottrade was informed by investigating agencies as they were checking data theft at other major financial services firms.
The stolen information contained passwords and client funds, but other important information remained safe even after the data breach. The company said that its security staff have not noticed any fraudulent transactions on client’s accounts managed by them. Scottrade had the responsibility to inform all the clients whose information was accessed by hackers and also expressed that all client passwords are safe and have been stored under encryption.
“Based on our investigation and information provided by federal authorities, we believe the illegal activity involving our network occurred between late 2013 and early 2014, and targeted client names and street addresses” said Scottrade in a statement issued on Friday.
Other incidents
These hacking incidents have increased over time and are a constant reminder for online companies to ensure data security, as Experian PLC announced that data of nearly 15 million customers was accessed by hackers.
“If your information was contained in the affected database, you will receive a letter or email from Scottrade with additional information and resources. We have secured the known intrusion point and conducted an internal data forensics investigation on this incident with assistance from a leading computer security firm. We have taken appropriate steps to further strengthen our network defenses” Scottrade firm said in a press release to Bloomberg.
For October, the National Cyber Security Month should be a reminder for people to be careful about their safety information by changing password regularly and keeping a secure password is important to ensure safety of private data.
Source: Bloomberg