Robinhood victim of a data theft, without financial consequences
Steph Deschamps / November 9, 2021
The American brokerage platform Robinhood announced on Monday that it had suffered a cyber attack, but without financial consequences a priori for the five million users whose email addresses were stolen.
Based on our investigation, the attack has been contained. We believe that no tax IDs, bank account numbers or debit card numbers were revealed and there was no financial loss to our customers, the California-based company said in a statement.
The hacker allegedly set up a fake customer service phone line, which he used to gain access to computer systems, on November 3
In all, this person recovered 5 million e-mail addresses, the full names of 2 million people and personal information (names, dates of birth, postal codes) for about 310 of them.
After we contained the intrusion, the unauthorized third party blackmailed us for money. We notified law enforcement and continue to investigate the incident with the help of a cybersecurity firm, Robinhood said.
The app has popularized commission-free brokerage and helped revive interest in the stock market among small savers, especially among young adults.
When it went public in late July, it had more than 22 million users and the median account balance was $240.30.
Data breaches and ransomware attacks have increased in recent years against organizations and businesses, to the point of crippling them in some cases.