Robinhood (NASDAQ:HOOD) has revealed a security breach in its platform that apparently took place on November 3, 2021. An attempt at extortion took place following the theft of the information.
According to a blog post, an “unauthorized third party obtained access to a limited amount of personal information for a portion of our customers.”
As it stands today, Robinhood believes the attack has been “contained” and no Social Security numbers, bank account numbers, or debit card numbers have been stolen.
Additionally, Robinhood claims there has been no financial loss affiliated with the hack.
To quote the blog post:
“The unauthorized party socially engineered a customer support employee by phone and obtained access to certain customer support systems. At this time, we understand that the unauthorized party obtained a list of email addresses for approximately five million people, and full names for a different group of approximately two million people. We also believe that for a more limited number of people—approximately 310 in total—additional personal information, including name, date of birth, and zip code, was exposed, with a subset of approximately 10 customers having more extensive account details revealed. We are in the process of making appropriate disclosures to affected people.”
Robinhood has enlisted Mandiant (NASDAQ: MNDT), an outside security firm, to assist in the recovery. Mandiant is a firm that offers dynamic cyber defense and response services including extortion attempts.
Caleb Sima, Robinhood Chief Security Officer, stated:
“As a Safety First company, we owe it to our customers to be transparent and act with integrity. Following a diligent review, putting the entire Robinhood community on notice of this incident now is the right thing to do.”
The news was released after regular market hours. In after-hours trading, Robinhood shares were trading slightly lower.