“`html
Major Data Breach Exposes Personal Information of Thousands at Fidelity Investments
A significant security incident has compromised the personal details of numerous clients from a prominent financial institution. Recent reports indicate that an unknown hacker accessed the private information of 77,009 customers from Fidelity Investments, a leading asset management company.
According to a statement released yesterday, the breach occurred in mid-August when the hacker utilized two fraudulent customer accounts to gain unauthorized access. The exact method by which these accounts were leveraged to retrieve sensitive data remains unclear. Fidelity informed its clients in a letter that it detected the breach on August 19. The communication reassured customers that their actual Fidelity accounts had not been breached; however, it confirmed that personal data had indeed been compromised.
In addition to this incident, another notification was issued yesterday detailing yet another “data security incident” involving customer information at Fidelity Investments. This notice revealed that an unauthorized third party managed to infiltrate “an internal database containing images of documents related to Fidelity customers” by submitting deceptive access requests on August 19 as well. Fortunately, this second breach did not result in any unauthorized access to customer accounts or funds and only affected a limited number of clients.
Protecting Yourself After a Data Breach
If you suspect your personal information may have been exposed due to this breach or any other data leak, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) advises taking immediate action by placing freezes and fraud alerts on your credit reports as well as monitoring your bank and credit card statements closely for any suspicious activity. Additionally, you can report incidents of identity theft through IdentityTheft.gov or by calling 1-877-438-4338 for assistance.
This article was originally published on Engadget and can be found here.
“`
