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Hacking. Disinformation. Surveillance. CYBER is Motherboard's podcast and reporting on the dark underbelly of the internet.
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On Monday Robinhood announced it had suffered a data breach, in which hackers socially engineered a customer service representative to then gain access to the email addresses of more than 5 million customers, the full names of 2 million other customers, and other data from a smaller group of users. The hacker then tried to extort the company, according to the announcement.“We also believe that for a more limited number of people—approximately 310 in total—additional personal information, including name, date of birth, and zip code, was exposed, with a subset of approximately 10 customers having more extensive account details revealed. We are in the process of making appropriate disclosures to affected people,” Robinhood’s announcement added.On Wednesday the Robinhood spokesperson said that “As we disclosed on November 8, about 10 customers had more extensive account details and information exposed,” when asked about the hackers’ access to the internal tool. Robinhood said that the screenshot with the customer support messages was part of this subset of 10 accounts.Some of the data included information on users who had requested for Robinhood to delete their account, Motherboard reported. Robinhood told Motherboard at the time that it is required by SEC rules to keep account information for six years after an account is closed.The hackers appear to be advertising access to some of the stolen data on an underground forum.Motherboard contacted two victims whose personal details were included in the screenshots but did not receive a response.Subscribe to our cybersecurity podcast CYBER, here. Subscribe to our new Twitch channel.Do you have a tip about Robinhood? We'd love to hear from you. Using a non-work phone or computer, you can contact Joseph Cox securely on Signal on +44 20 8133 5190, Wickr on josephcox, or email joseph.cox@vice.com.