March 11, 2024 at 03:19PM
EquiLend Holdings, a New York-based securities lending platform, suffered a January ransomware attack resulting in stolen employee data. The firm confirmed that some systems were taken offline to contain the breach, despite initially not specifying the incident’s nature. EquiLend stated that client services have resumed, with no evidence of client data access. However, employee personally identifiable information was compromised. EquiLend is providing affected employees with identity theft protection services.
From the meeting notes provided, the key takeaways are:
– EquiLend Holdings, a New York-based securities lending platform, experienced a ransomware attack in January, which resulted in a data breach.
– The attack forced EquiLend to take some systems offline on January 22. The nature of the attack was not initially disclosed, but LockBit ransomware claimed responsibility.
– Despite not confirming LockBit’s claims, EquiLend later revealed that the breach resulted from a ransomware attack. They stated that client-facing services were back online and that they had not found evidence of client transaction data being accessed or exfiltrated.
– However, EquiLend did confirm that employee personally identifiable information (PII) was stolen in the attack, including names, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers.
– EquiLend reported that they have no evidence of the stolen personal information being used for identity theft or fraud, but they are providing affected employees with two years of free identity theft protection services.
– EquiLend was established in 2001 by a group of ten global banks and broker-dealers and now has over 330 employees and offices in North America, EMEA, and Asia-Pacific. Their services are used by more than 190 firms worldwide, including agency lending banks, hedge funds, and broker-dealers. Securities finance marketplace participants also use Equilend’s Next Generation Trading (NGT) multi-asset securities trading platform in transactions worth more than $2.4 trillion monthly.