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MoneyGram, a giant U.S. money transfer company, admitted that last month hackers stole the personal and transaction data of its customers.
According to the company’s Monday statement, an unauthorized third party “accessed and acquired” client data during the incident on September 20th , The source of the intrusion is yet unknown, but it caused a week-long outage that brought the company’s app and website offline.
MoneyGram claims to serve over 50 million consumers in over 200 countries and territories each year.
MoneyGram said in a Monday statement that its investigation is still in its “early stages” and that it is trying to find out which customers were affected by this issue. How many clients would be impacted was not disclosed by the company. When contacted, MoneyGram spokeswoman Sydney Schoolfield refused to elaborate further than the statement provided by the company.
Types of Customer Information Stolen in MoneyGram Data Breach
Personal information such as names, contact details (phone and email), dates of birth, and national identity numbers are among the stolen customer records. There are a “limited number” of social security numbers and other government-issued identifiers in the data set, including utility bills, bank account numbers, and driver’s licenses. MoneyGram said that each person will have different kinds of stolen data.
According to MoneyGram, there was also “criminal investigation information (such as fraud) for a limited number of consumers.” The stolen data also had transaction information, like the dates and transaction amounts.
Immediate Actions Taken by MoneyGram
After identifying the issue, MoneyGram took swift action to limit and rectify the incident, including putting certain systems offline, which impacted service availability temporarily.
The company started an investigation with the help of top hacking experts from outside the company and has been working with law enforcement.
Additionally, MoneyGram has confirmed that all systems are operational again and that regular business activities have resumed. Customers are advised to review account statements and monitor their free credit reports in order to remain vigilant against fraud and identity theft.
Beyond that, MoneyGram has made arrangements to provide concerned US consumers with free credit monitoring and identity protection services for two years.
The company also emphasizes the protection of personal data and advises clients not to open messages from unknown senders. Regarding the breach, MoneyGram cooperated with the police and offered identity security solutions, which proved their commitment to keeping their customer information safe.
