Robinhood announced on his blog that he experienced an incident that affected data security.
The popular investment app Robinhood, with some 7 million users worldwide, revealed yesterday in a blog post that it was the victim of an attack that affected data security.
Below we translate the information from the blog, which began by acknowledging -five days later- what happened to them last week.
The investment app told that late on the night of November 3, they experienced a data security breach. An unauthorized third party gained access to a limited amount of personal data for a portion of their clients.
According to a series of investigations, the attack got contained, and Robinhood now firmly believes that no Social Security numbers, bank account numbers, or debit card numbers got exposed; there has been no financial damage for any clients as a result of the incident.
The unauthorized party managed to engineer a telephone customer service employee and gained access to various customer service systems. Robinhood clarified that the unauthorized party acquired a list of email addresses of at least five million people and the full names of a different group of approximately two million people.
Robinhood also believes that approximately 310 in total, additional personal information, including name, date of birth, and zip code, got exposed, with a subset of ten customers disclosing more extensive account details. Robinhood is currently making appropriate disclosures to affected individuals.
Hacker Demanded Payment
Likewise, Robinhood highlights that the hacker tried to profit financially from the company. According to Robinhood, after they managed to block the intrusion, the unauthorized party demanded an extortion payment. Robinhood immediately reported the event to the authorities and continued to investigate the incident with the assistance of Mandiant, a leading external security firm.
The Company’s Chief Security Officer, Caleb Sima, also said that, as a company, safety comes first, and after a diligent review, alerting the entire Robinhood community of this incident is now the right thing to do.
Cryptopotato recalls that this is not the first time that Robinhood’s security has experienced danger. According to a report, the commission-free trading app got compromised last year, with nearly 2,000 users affected.
It highlights that, although the attackers gained access to customer login details outside of the system, the data got later used to divert the affected funds off the platform.
On the other hand, in February of this year, the popular trading platform among millennials reported that the platform increased by six million new clients in Robinhood Crypto.
What is the Robinhood App?
Robinhood is a free trading platform. It brings the ability to invest in a bundle of stocks listed on Wall Street and purchase and trade cryptocurrencies. With this platform, it is also possible to invest in gold and ETF, a type of investment fund; all independently, without going through consultants, and all without spending on commissions.
The company appeared in 2013 by Baiju Bhatt and Vlad Tenev, two Stanford graduates, to democratize Wall Street by bringing everyone, even the young and less well-off, the opportunity to acquire commission-free investments.
By: Jenson Nuñez
