Scottrade, a well-known investment company, recently experienced a significant online attack resulting in a major data breach. This hack impacted information related to 4.6 million clients who registered for a Scottrade brokerage account before February 2014.
During the breach, hackers accessed a vast database containing client information such as names, physical addresses, email addresses, and Social Security numbers. However, Scottrade expressed doubts that the more sensitive data, like Social Security numbers, was ever used or stolen.
The breach was confirmed on a Friday, and the company admitted that unknown cybercriminals had successfully hacked into their computer network. Surprisingly, Scottrade didn’t realize the data theft had occurred until the FBI informed them in August.