In the announcement, Scottrade said it has no reason to believe that the company’s trading platforms or client funds were compromised; rather, the breach is thought to have focused on client contact information.
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The data breach comes a day after credit ratings agency Experian said hackers broke into its system and stole the personal information of about 15 million that have applied for T-Mobile wireless service.
In a brief statement on its website, the Missouri-based company said it was informed by federal law enforcement of “illegal activity involving our network” that occurred between late-2013 and early-2014. The hackers might have accessed names of clients and addresses in a database. The company said it has already fortified its network to avert further hacks.
It said it was notifying customers of the hack “as a precaution”. It will directly notify these customers of the attack.
Scottrade is offering clients a year of identity theft protection.
“All client passwords remained encrypted at all times”, the company wrote in its email and web site notice. The details on how to enroll for this free service is going to be contained in the letter that will be sent to all possible targets of the hack.
“We take the security of the information entrusted to us very…”
Looking forward, the company said that it has secured the intrusion point the attackers used to get into its systems, and conducted an internal investigation with the help of an unnamed computer security firm.
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Incidentally, October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month in the U.S. And now at least 20 million people have had their awareness raised.
