The financial app Robinhood revealed that it suffered a leak of the personal data of seven million users

Stock trading app Robinhood was hit by a security breach that has exposed the names or email addresses of more than seven million people.

The company says the data breach affected “a limited amount of personal information” for a portion of its customers.

The financial services platform said in a statement that the attack, which occurred on November 3, allowed an unauthorized group to obtain a list of email addresses of about 5 million people and the full names of another group of about 2 million. millions of people.

Additional personal information was also disclosed, including the name, date of birth and zip code of approximately 310 people. He claimed that the “larger account details” of ten people were disclosed, without giving further details.

How the data breach happened

a hacker He called the company’s customer service and, posing as an authorized person, tricked a Robinhood employee into giving him access to the computer system, a technique known as “social engineering,” according to the company.

After stealing information from Robinhood, the attacker attempted to extort money from the company, which chose to alert the police and warn users.

“We owe it to our clients to be transparent and act with integrity,” Robinhood’s chief of security, Caleb Sima, said in the statement.

“The attack has been contained and we believe that no Social Security numbers, bank account numbers or debit card numbers were exposed and that there has been no financial loss for any customers as a result of the incident,” Robinhood said. (I)