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Dark web hackers offer to sell more than 10,000 login keys to Robinhood’s online stock-trading accounts
- Access to more than 10,000 email login credentials allegedly tied to Robinhood accounts were up for sale this week, according to a Bloomberg review of dark web marketplaces
- The number of Robinhood-related emails outnumber those for other brokerages by about 5-to-1, analysts say
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The dark web is the underbelly of the internet, where cybercriminals hunt for drugs, demand ransom and engage in trafficking.
It’s also where hackers can buy and sell email credentials to access customer accounts at Robinhood Markets, the online brokerage that has drawn millions of users this year, many of them young and trading stocks for the first time.
Access to more than 10,000 email login credentials allegedly tied to Robinhood accounts were available for sale this week, according to a Bloomberg review of dark web marketplaces. The number of Robinhood-related emails outnumber those for other brokerages by about 5-to-1, according to Eli Dominitz, chief executive officer of Q6 Cyber, an e-crime intelligence firm that analysed the prevalence of these advertisements on the dark web.
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“If they feel that Robinhood gives them greater upside than trying to steal money from Bank of America, that’s what they’re going to do,” Dominitz said of the cybercriminals and why there may be more demand for Robinhood accounts over other brokerages.
Robinhood customers have complained for months that their accounts have been hacked and that they’ve struggled to get the company to respond. An internal investigation found almost 2,000 accounts were compromised as a result of hacked emails, a person familiar with the matter said this month.
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Robinhood emphasised that it’s not the only brokerage subject to such attacks.
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