Yesterday (1/10) US-based forex broker FXCM disclosed to its clients that the company was 'the victim of a criminal cybersecurity incident involving unauthorized access to customer information', or in another word: they were hacked.
Yesterday (1/10) US-based forex broker FXCM disclosed to its clients that the company was 'the victim of a criminal cybersecurity incident involving unauthorized access to customer information', or in another word: they were hacked. Apparently, hacking is increasingly common along with the rising popularity of online trading.
According to FXCM press release, they received an email from a hacker that claimed to have gained access to customer informations. Additionally, it also said that there has been a small number of unauthorized wire transfers from customer accounts. Consequently, FXCM notified all of its clients and recommended them to reset passwords.
It is not known how many accounts impacted by the incident, but FXCM said that all funds has been sent back to the clients and now they are holding an internal investigation on the matter. The New York-headquartered broker has also reported it to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and is now cooperating in the probe.
Reporting the incident, FinanceMagnates pointed out its similarities to unauthorized transactions that has affected other banks and financial firms. It is usually led by Trojan, in which hackers gained access to the affected clients and collected their account details such as names and passwords.
On the other hand, the Wall Street Journal highlights the fact that similar cases may happen more often than we know. Thomas Peterffy from Interactive Brokers Inc said to WSJ that unauthorized online attacks is a huge issue among forex brokers. Interactive Brokers too has been subjected to DoS online attacks. While according to Frederic Ponzo of GreySpark Partners consultancy, hacking incident in the industry are not only aimed to take trader's information, but also to get into the system to trade directly on an account.