Major Financial Leak Threatens Stock Traders

[Brandon]

Online trading company Scottrade has warned its customers that data thieves compromised the systems of its electronic checking provider last month, resulting in a major leak of personal information.

The financial services company said in a statement dated November 11 that its eCheck Secure service provider TROY Group had acknowledged being compromised. However, at least some Scottrade clients did not get a notice about the breach until last week, according to posts on FatWallet.

"On October 25, 2005, Troy Group ... reported to us that a computer hacker had compromised its eCheck Secure servers," Scottrade stated in its letter. "As a result, some of your personal information, including your name, driver's license or state ID number, date of birth, phone number, bank name, bank code, bank number, bank routing number, bank account number and Scottrade account number may have been compromised."

The incident is the latest data leak to impact companies holding customers personal data. In June, Mastercard International announced that one of its accredited processors had put at risk 40 million credit-card accounts because the firm's servers had not been secured properly. In July, the University of California at Santa Clara announced it had a flaw in its systems that could have put as many as 280,000 applicant's personal information, including social security numbers, at risk.

The Troy Group announced the breach on October 25 in a press release, which did not get picked up by the mainstream media. Neither company has stated how many people have had their information compromised by the breach. The Washington Post posted a blog entry on the incident on Monday.

[JDoors]

... "As a result, some of your personal information, including your name, driver's license or state ID number, date of birth, phone number, bank name, bank code, bank number, bank routing number, bank account number and Scottrade account number may have been compromised." ...

Jeez! Years ago where I worked some employees who manually entered data stole some information from maybe a dozen customers and used it illegally, with computers -- The sky's the limit. Yup, computers are efficient little buggers.