CNBC, news associate Jacob Pramuk goes on to explain that, “the incident took place around late 2013 and early 2014 and the affected database contains Social Security numbers and email addresses of clients, but hackers appeared to target names and addresses. The company said it has taken “appropriate steps” to boost its network security after the incident.” This is interesting considering the hack is only coming to light in 2015, almost two year after the incident occurred.
The company has confirmed that the breach exposed the personal information of 4.6 million customers. Scottrade went on to release the following statement: “Based upon our subsequent internal investigation coupled with information provided by the authorities, we believe a list of client names and street addresses was taken from our system. Importantly, we have no reason to believe that Scottrade’s trading platforms or any client funds were compromised. All client passwords remained encrypted at all times and we have not seen any indication of fraudulent activity as a result of this incident.”
Security author Brian Krebs mentions that “ Scottrade said despite the fact that it doesn’t believe Social Security numbers were stolen, the company is offering a year’s worth of free credit monitoring services to affected customers.” Let’s hope this helps them to prevent future hacking disasters.
*** Sources***
Jacob Pramuk- CNBC
Brian Krebs- Krebs on security
Pierluigi Paganini-Security analyst
