Published , by TJ Denzer
Published , by TJ Denzer
It’s a nerve-wracking day to be a Robinhood customer following a rather large security breach on the platform. Recently, a cyberattack breached and stole information on around 7 million Robinhood users, the company disclosed. While it claims social security numbers, credit cards, and bank accounts weren’t caught up in the breach, full names, emails, dates of birth, and zip codes were part of the stolen data.
Robinhood disclosed the security breach in a press release on its website on November 8, 2021, as reported by Engadget. The data of over 7 million users were exposed to varying degrees. Of those 7 million, 5 million email addresses were exposed, as well as 2 million full names. More selectively, there was a group of around 310 individuals of which stolen data included dates of birth and zip codes. 10 customers among those 310 were victims of even further extensive data theft.
Despite this massive breach, Robinhood claims that sensitive financial information was not uncovered. Social Security numbers, bank account, and debit card numbers did not appear to be part of the data that was stolen, though Robinhood is still taking necessary precautions to protect customer information.
Robinhood has been under the microscope thoroughly lately, not the least because of its alleged involvement in a scandal with Citadel Securities in which Robinhood may have colluded with Citadel as it made the decision to shut off the ability for clients to buy popular meme stocks like GameStop, AMC, BlackBerry, and more. Robinhood was also forced to testify in front of the U.S. Congress about its part in manipulating the chaos of these stocks earlier in the year.
As scrutiny has piled up for Robinhood (and as it has gone public since), issues such as this security breach are likely to be another albatross for the company to carry as it closes out the year.