[Dataloss] MA: Hackers compromised LPL security

[lyger]

http://www.investmentnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080708/REG/134627256/1094/INDaily01

For the second time in a year, LPL Financial has experienced a major 
technology snafu, this time reporting that hackers "compromised" the logon 
passwords of 14 financial advisers and four assistants.

The hackers' goal was to use the passwords to gain access to customer 
accounts in order to "pump and dump" penny stocks.

The incidents, which began last July, affected 10,219 clients, 
Boston-based LPL said in a letter dated May 6 to Maryland Attorney General 
Douglas F. Gansler.

Valuable private client information was at stake, Keith H. Fine, senior 
vice president and associate counsel of LPL wrote in the letter, as the 
hackers potentially could get their hands on clients' unencrypted names, 
addresses and Social Security numbers.

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