Mobile trading company Robinhood says several customer accounts were hacked by cybercriminals. The digital trading company said a "limited number" of accounts were affected and the attack was from outside.
A Robinhood representative said in a statement an unknown group of hackers had compromised several of its customers' personal email accounts. This allowed the hackers to access the customers' Robinhood accounts by manually resetting their passwords.
Robinhood didn't specify the number of accounts affected. However, a report from Bloomberg News said close to 2,000 accounts may have been compromised. Then this represents a small portion of the company's more than 13 million accounts.
The company said in its statement the security of its accounts was its priority and it would do everything to help those affected. In the meantime, the company is advising all customers to immediately secure their accounts by either changing their passwords or enabling two-factor authentication. Robinhood said enabling two-factor authentication should give accounts a stronger protection.
The company's spokesman said Robinhood was currently keeping a lookout for any potential fraud on all of its customers' accounts. If it received any report of fraudulent activity, Robinhood said it would immediately restrict all activities on the account, log the account out of all devices and require the owner to change his or her password.
During the pandemic, Robinhood has seen an increase in new users. The company has given both investors and regular citizens the ability to trade and buy stocks, ETFs and options using just their mobile phones and computers. It has also given young investors access to exotic financial instruments that would otherwise be reserved for specialist traders.
This has landed the company in hot water. Politicians and officials have encouraged the company to introduce measures to prevent customers from incurring big losses. In June, a customer is suspected of taking their own life after discovering a loss of $730,000.
