New Updates on Chicago’s Retirement Benefits Accounts Breach

A few days back we reported how investigators were keen on finding the culprit of retirement benefits accounts. The retirement benefits accounts of the municipal workers were infringed and some money was stolen. Earlier, the investigation was leaning towards hacking but as per the new reports, the data was stolen not hacked.

The Money Stolen from Chicago’s Retirement Benefits Accounts Breach

As per the latest reports the city employees in Chicago lost about $2.6 million when their retirement benefits accounts were infringed. Though nationwide, the private firm managing the accounts deposited the money stolen from the accounts within 5 days time, the investigators are still working hard to find the source of the breach and it seems that they have got an idea of how it was done.

The Infringement

Earlier the investigators were suspecting that some professional hacker or a group of hackers were responsible for the stealing but now the reports are different. The investigators now believe that the bad guys had access to personal information of municipal employees and they used that information to set up online profiles with the city’s deferred compensation plan. After creating the accounts, they took out the loans and the city lost the money.

The Statement

In a recent statement given by the Nationwide spokesperson, the company admitted that they believed that the accounts were not hacked but someone stole the information. It is pertinent to add here that the company is playing a major role in investigating the fraud along with the teams of city officials and some federal officers.

Hushed Up Details

When the spokesperson was asked whether it was an inside job, the person refused to offer a comment and stated that no more information would be divulged as the investigation was still ongoing.

Chicago’s Comptroller Opinion

A spokeswoman representing the Chicago’s Comptroller also shared some update. She stated that the fraud was conducted by an individual or group who succeeded in accessing the personal information and created a web profile. Then the profile was used to take out a loan from the retirement account.

The Corrective Measures

Nationwide had started taking corrective measures soon after the breach. It returned the money to all 58 accounts that were infringed within 5 days. The company is now offering two years of free credit monitoring to all the customers who were affected by the retirement benefits accounts breach.