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Block Inc. is the latest big-name company to suffer from a breach of customer information, as the financial-technology company recently disclosed that a former employee accessed data related to the Cash App’s investing feature after leaving Block.
The company disclosed in a late Monday filing that the former employee improperly accessed reports containing customers’ first names and their brokerage account numbers associated with trading on the Cash App platform. For some impacted customers, the former employee was able to access information such as brokerage portfolio value, brokerage holding and one day’s worth of trading activity. The incident occurred Dec. 10.
Block
SQ,
formerly known as Square, further noted that the reports didn’t contain personal information such as usernames, passwords, Social Security numbers, birthdates, payment credentials, addresses, or bank-account details, per the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“Other Cash App products and features (other than stock activity) and customers outside of the United States were not impacted,” the company continued.
The former employee had access to the reports while working for Block, but the company found that the person had downloaded some of them and accessed them without permission after leaving.
Block investigated the incident alongside a forensics company, and it said that it has notified law enforcement. In addition, Square disclosed that it would be “notifying the applicable regulatory authorities” and reaching out to 8.2 million current and former customers about the occurrence.
“The company takes the security of information belonging to its customers very seriously and continues to review and strengthen administrative and technical safeguards to protect the information of its customers,” Block said in the filing.
While the company admitted that it was difficult to forecast costs around the incident, Block doesn’t expect it to materially impact financial results or operations.
Block, which changed its corporate name from Square late last year, saw its shares fall 5.3% in Wednesday’s session, following a 6.4% decline in Tuesday trading.
