Prudential Financial, a global insurance/financial services company, revealed that over 2.5 million people were affected by a data breach that took place in February.
According to an 8-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Prudential discovered the breach on Feb. 5, a day after the attackers accessed its systems. The hackers accessed administrator/user data and employee/contractor accounts.
See also: Agropur data breach exposes customer information
In March, the company revealed that it notified over 36,000 people whose personal information (including names, driver's license numbers, and social security numbers) was stolen during the breach.
“Through our investigation, we learned that the unauthorized third party gained access to our network on February 4, 2024. It removed a small percentage of personal information from our systems,” Prudential said.
The company said it worked with leading cybersecurity experts to investigate the incident and confirm that the hackers no longer had access to the systems.
However, last week, the company updated the information it had previously shared with the Maine Attorney General's Office and said that the incident ultimately affected 2,556,210 people.
See also: Geisinger: Patient data breach by IT employee
Prudential Financial: The ALPHV gang behind the data breach?
While Prudential has not shared additional information about the attackers, the ransomware claimed responsibility for the attack on February 13.
Shortly thereafter, ALPHV ceased operations after stealing $22 million in ransom from an affiliate known as Notchy.
However, the Prudential Financial data breach highlights the need to adopt advanced encryption technologies to protect customer data. In addition, stricter accessto ensure that only authorized employees have access to sensitive information. This includes the use of multi-factor authentication (MFA) to verify user.
See also: BSNL: Data breach affects millions of customers of the telecom provider
Training staff on cybersecurity best practices is also crucial to preventing similar incidents . Training should include identifying and avoiding phishing attacks and other malicious activities.
Source: www.bleepingcomputer.com
🔒 Protect your privacy with Proton VPN
Swiss VPN from the creators of Proton Mail — strict no-logs policy, strong encryption, and built-in NetShield that blocks ads, trackers, & malware.
- ✔ No-logs, based in Switzerland (except 14-Eyes)
- ✔ NetShield: blocks ads, trackers & malicious domains
- ✔ Covers all devices — free version available
The link is an affiliate link — SecNews may receive a commission at no additional cost to you. It does not affect the independence of our article writing.
