Millions Of Accounts Affected By Robinhood Systems Cyberattack

Financial and trading services company Robinhood disclosed that it had been the victim of a cyberattack earlier this month. The company said that the data breach had affected millions of accounts on its platform.

Robinhood said hackers breached its systems on Nov. 3 and obtained information on millions of its customers. The hackers later demanded that the company send a payment for the return of the stolen data.

The online trading platform stated that hackers had obtained a list of email addresses for around 5 million people and complete names for another group of about 2 million people.

The company said the names, dates of birth, and zip codes of a small number of accounts, about 310 people, were stolen. Robinhood said detailed information of around 10 accounts were also obtained. Robinhood did not say what types of information from those 10 people were stolen.

Robinhood said it was able to halt the intrusion and stop the hackers from stealing more data. Once it stopped the breach, the hackers reportedly demanded an extortion payment. The company did not say if it had complied with the demand. Robinhood said it immediately contacted law enforcement to inform them about the incident.

The hackers were able to access  Robinhood’s customer support systems by impersonating a customer service representative over the phone. Robinhood said it is working on properly notifying affected customers about the breach, and it is continuing its investigation with the assistance of security company Mandiant.