Data breach at investment firm Betterment impacted over 1.4 million accounts

Automated investment platform Betterment has clarified that a security incident it suffered in January did not compromise customer accounts or passwords even though hackers managed to access customers’ email addresses and contact information.

 

In January, the financial services company announced that malicious unauthorised individuals used social engineering to gain access to several of its systems through trusted third-party software platforms. The company used these platforms for marketing and operations.

 

Upon gaining access, the attackers sent fraudulent cryptocurrency investment-related emails to the company’s customers, indicating that they had gained access to customers’ email addresses. 

 

"After the fraudulent message was sent on January 9, our teams immediately revoked the unauthorised access and launched a comprehensive investigation, which is ongoing. We have also engaged a leading cybersecurity firm to assist with our investigation," the company said in a statement released on January 12.

 

The company added that the attackers gained access to a large number of customer records, including the names. email addresses, physical addresses, phone numbers, and birthdates of some customers.

 

The company also warned customers not to fall for the fraudulent crypto offers made by fraudsters representing themselves as Betterment. 

 

Earlier this month, Betterment issued an update on its investigation into the cyber security incident. "Our forensic investigation, supported by the cybersecurity firm, CrowdStrike, has confirmed that no customer accounts, passwords, or login information were compromised as part of the January 9 incident," the company said.

 

"Consistent with our prior update, our analysis continues to indicate that the primary privacy impact involved certain customer contact information, including names and emails. In a subset of cases, contact information was coupled with other customer information, such as physical addresses, phone numbers, or birthdates.," it added.

 

According to breach database Have I Been Pwned?, the data breach involving Betterment’s systems on January 9 compromised about 1.4 million unique email addresses, along with names and geographic location data. The dates of birth, phone numbers, job titles and physical addresses of some customers’ also formed part of the breached data.