Fidelity Investments has disclosed a significant data breach that compromised the personal information of over 77,000 customers. The breach, which occurred in August, involved unauthorized access to the company’s systems.

What Happened: Fidelity Investments reported that a data breach in August exposed the personal data of over 77,099 customers.

The breach took place between Aug. 17 and Aug. 19, when unauthorized individuals accessed Fidelity’s systems through two newly created customer accounts. The Boston-based firm detected the breach on Aug. 19 and swiftly terminated the unauthorized access.

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In a filing with Maine’s attorney general, Fidelity confirmed that customer accounts and funds remained unaffected. However, personal information such as Social Security numbers and driver's licenses were compromised.

Fidelity also informed New Hampshire’s attorney general that the unauthorized party accessed documents by submitting fraudulent requests to an internal database containing images of documents related to Fidelity customers.

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Despite the breach, Fidelity assured that customer accounts remained secure. The company, which manages assets worth $14.1 trillion as of June, did not provide further details on how the breach occurred.

Fidelity Investments did not immediately respond to Benzinga’s comment request.

Why It Matters: The Fidelity breach is the latest in a series of high-profile data breaches affecting major companies. In July, Disney experienced a significant data breach when hackers leaked sensitive internal data from its Slack channels. This breach exposed discussions about ad campaigns and studio technology.

Earlier in October, a cyberattack linked to the Chinese government targeted major U.S. broadband providers, including AT&T and Verizon. This breach, known as Salt Typhoon, posed a significant national security risk by potentially compromising systems used for court-authorized wiretapping requests.

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• Chinese Hackers Breach AT&T, Verizon Networks In Major Wiretap Data Theft Putting US National Security At Risk

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

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