Fund Administrator for Fortress, Pimco and Others Suffers Data Breach Through Vendor
A ransomware attack against a vendor of SEI Investments compromised data from investors
A ransomware attack against a vendor of SEI Investments Co. detected in May exposed the personal information of investors in roughly 100 of the fund administrator’s clients, according to people familiar with the matter. Angelo Gordon & Co., Graham Capital Management, Fortress Investment Group LLC, Centerbridge Partners and Pacific Investment Management Co. were among the funds whose investors were impacted by the attack, the people said. Some of SEI’s clients notified their investors of the breach earlier this month after SEI told them about the attack. The attack infiltrated the corporate systems of M.J. Brunner, a Pittsburgh- and Atlanta-based service provider that developed and supports SEI’s investment dashboard and online enrollment portal, the people said. Hackers took files from Brunner that contained user names and emails—and in some cases names, physical addresses and phone numbers—associated with the dashboard, the people said.
A spokeswoman for SEI said the company’s network wasn’t compromised and the attack wasn’t predicated on a vulnerability within its network. “We take our clients’ security very seriously, and we are working with Brunner, the FBI and our impacted clients to understand the extent to which SEI’s or our clients’ data has been exposed,” she said. A Brunner spokesman said in a statement its IT staff “detected, and interrupted, a security incident involving some of our corporate systems by an unauthorized actor. We immediately notified the FBI and will continue to work with them through their investigation.” The attack is the latest in a string of ransomware incidents that have affected the financial-services sector through its suppliers. In March, financial-technology provider Finastra suffered an attack that forced it to temporarily take its systems offline. An attack on Finablr PLC’s foreign-exchange business Travelex in late December shut down its website for weeks, which had a knock-on effect on banks that use its services. Regulators are growing increasingly concerned about these incidents. On July 10, the Securities and Exchange Commission published a warning that it had seen sophisticated cyberattacks targeting companies it regulates and their third-party suppliers. Officials from the National Security Agency have warned that vendors and service providers have emerged as popular targets, as successful attacks can yield access to large amounts of sensitive information for a web of clients, or even systems access.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/fund-administrator-for-fortress-pimco-and-others-suffers-data-breach-through-vendor-11595857765