Robinhood warned users on Monday that a hacker bypassed the defenses of stock trading applications and stole the email addresses of millions of users. The company stated in a blog post that the culprit called customer support and pretended to be an authorized party to trick Robinhood employees into providing access to customer support computer systems, a hacking technique known as “social engineering.”

According to the post, after stealing information from Robinhood, hackers tried to blackmail the company for payment, and the company chose to alert the police and warn users about violations. “We should keep our customers transparent and act with integrity,” Robinhood Chief Security Officer Caleb Sima said in the post. “After careful review, it is the right thing to let the entire Robinhood community pay attention to this incident.” According to the company, the vulnerability occurred on the evening of November 3, when hackers stole about 5 million email addresses of Robinhood users and the names of about 2 million other members of the investment service company. Robinhood stated that the hacker also appeared to have the names, dates of birth and postal codes associated with 310 users, as well as other account details for some of them.

Robin Hood said in the post: “The attack has been contained. We believe that no social security number, bank account or debit card number has been exposed, and no customers have caused financial losses as a result of this incident.” Hackers can use the stolen information to try to deceive members of Robinhood through tricks such as “phishing” emails to impersonate the company.

Robinhood is believed to introduce a new generation of individual investors to the stock market, but the platform is also addictive due to the features critics have said. Robinhood’s game-like aspect also raises concerns that users may ignore the serious financial consequences of investment.

News Source : Gadgets 360