[ISN] TD Ameritrade's 6 million customers hit with security breach

From: InfoSec News (alerts@private)
Date: Fri Sep 14 2007 - 22:04:23 PDT


http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9778779-7.html

By Dawn Kawamoto 
September 14, 2007

Online trading company TD Ameritrade alerted more than 6 million 
customers Friday that a security breach occurred with its client 
information database.

The database contained such sensitive information as clients' names, 
Social Security numbers, dates of birth, addresses, phone numbers and 
trading activity.

Ameritrade, however, stressed that it has no evidence that Social 
Security numbers and client demographics, such as birth dates and 
trading activity information, were retrieved or used to commit identity 
theft. The company also notes that Ameritrade's user log-ins and 
passwords were not part of the database.

The discovery was made a couple of weeks ago, when the online broker 
learned that investment-related spam had infiltrated the brokers' 
system. The malicious code allowed a hacker to access some of the 
information stored in the database.

A TD Ameritrade spokeswoman declined to give further details of the 
security breach, noting that the investigation is still ongoing.

But one security expert said it could have happened one of two ways.

"There are only two different ways this could have happened. There was 
either a vulnerability with their Web site and it was hacked, or someone 
internally gained access with a Trojan horse," said Graham Cluley, 
senior technology consultant at Sophos.

He warned that Ameritrade clients should be on the lookout for phishing 
attempts, which try to steal users' log-ins and passwords by lulling 
them into believing the e-mail is being sent by the online broker.

Hackers may also try to use the information to run a pump-and-dump 
scheme, in which certain stocks are touted to clients, driving up the 
stock price before the attackers dump the stock.

Ameritrade said it hired ID Analytics to conduct a forensics test to 
ascertain what information, if any, has been compromised. It has also 
posted more information on its Web site.


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