Block Inc, confirmed that they had a data breach which was due to a former employee. Cash App is one of the products developed by Block.
Cash App is a mobile application that can be used to transfer money between users. But this app is limited to the United Kingdom and the United States only. However, one of the former employees of Inc had access to many reports when he was working with Block.
Unfortunately, his access was not revoked by the IT department. This gave the employee a way to access many reports after he left the company. Block said that sensitive information was accessed without permission on December 10.
Block did not reveal the person’s name and his time of leaving the company. Following this, the company filed a report with the United States Security and Exchange Commission on April 4.
The report also stated that “While this employee had regular access to these reports as part of their past job responsibilities, in this instance these reports were accessed without permission after their employment ended”.
The breach consisted of information like the full names of users, brokerage account numbers, brokerage portfolio value, brokerage portfolio holdings, and stock trading activity. A specific count was not provided by Block. But they have contacted nearly 8.2 million people about the incident.
However, it did not contain sensitive or personally identifiable information which includes usernames, passwords, Social Security numbers, payment card information, or addresses.
Block has launched an internal investigation following this incident. Block also stated that “Upon discovery, we took steps to remediate this issue and launched an investigation with the help of a leading forensics firm. We know how these reports were accessed, and we have notified law enforcement. In addition, we continue to review and strengthen administrative and technical safeguards to protect information”.
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