Fidelity reports data breach of 77k customers to Maine Attorney General

American Financial Services firm Fidelity Investments filed a data breach report involving access to 77,000 customers’ personal information.

On Oct. 9, Fidelity Investments filed a data breach notification to the Maine Attorney General’s office. The crypto exchange-traded fund stated that the breach affected 77,099 of its customers out of the total 51.5 million customers listed in the firm’s base.

An unnamed third party reportedly used two recently established customer accounts to access and obtain customers’ personal information without authorization. The data breach occurred between Aug. 17 and Aug. 19.

Fidelity detected the breach on Aug. 19 and took steps to terminate the unauthorized access.

“An investigation was promptly launched with assistance from external security experts. The information obtained by the third party related to a small subset of our customers. Please note that this incident did not involve any access to your Fidelity account(s),” stated the company in a letter sent to notify impacted customers.

Fidelity also stated that it has worked together with ““external security experts” to resolve the matter.

Additionally, the firm is offering affected customers a free 24-month a credit monitoring and identity restoration service, so that they may be better equipped in helping the company detect “any unusual activity that may affect your personal financial situation.”

“It is always a good idea to remain vigilant for fraudulent activity or identity theft by regularly reviewing your statements for your financial and other accounts, monitoring your credit reports, and promptly reporting any suspicious activity to your financial institution,” the company added.

According to the notice, this is Fidelity’s fourth third-party data breach in the past year. The financial services company has experience with three other data breaches, occurring on March 4, March 18 and July 19.

On March 27, Fidelity filed an S-1 form for a spot Ethereum ETF, with inclusion of staking. Based on data from Farside Investors, Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund has accumulated $9.8 billion in flows since launching on Jan. 11, 2024.