Davidson Companies Informs Clients of Network Intrusion Resulting in Illegal Access to Personal Data.GREAT FALLS Great Falls, city (1990 pop. 55,097), seat of Cascade co., N central Mont., second largest city in the state, at the confluence of the Missouri and Sun rivers and near the falls that give the city its name; inc. 1888. , Mont. -- Davidson Companies today announced that a database containing certain personal information of its current and past clients may have been unlawfully accessed by a third party through a sophisticated network intrusion. Based on the company's review, there is no evidence the unauthorized access enabled the third party to affect or alter client accounts through company systems. The company recently became aware of the intrusion and immediately took its public Internet Internet Publicly accessible computer network connecting many smaller networks from around the world. It grew out of a U.S. Defense Department program called ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), established in 1969 with connections between computers at the site offline. The company has contacted law enforcement and its regulatory authorities Noun 1. regulatory authority - a governmental agency that regulates businesses in the public interest regulatory agency administrative body, administrative unit - a unit with administrative responsibilities , notified the three credit reporting bureaus, and retained an information technology security and forensic Belonging to courts of justice. forensic 1) adj. from Latin forensis for "belonging to the forum," ancient Rome's site for public debate, and currently meaning pertaining to the courts. firm to review the incident and assist the company in its response. "Despite our efforts to safeguard client information, a computer hacker A person who writes programs in assembly language or in system-level languages, such as C. The term often refers to any programmer, but its true meaning is someone with a strong technical background who is "hacking away" at the bits and bytes. using sophisticated techniques illegally accessed a database and obtained access to confidential client information," said William A. Johnstone, Davidson Companies president and chief executive officer. "All of us at Davidson are acutely aware of the uncertainty, stress and inconvenience associated with the potential compromise of personal information. We are fully committed (Law) committed to prison for trial, in distinction from being detained for examination. See also: Fully to helping our clients deal with this unfortunate event as quickly as possible and are adopting measures to further enhance our network security." In a letter sent to clients, Johnstone wrote, "Because we are concerned about the possible misuse of your personal information, we are writing so that you may take steps to protect yourself from fraud and identity theft." Johnstone said he encourages clients to read the letter in full. The letter includes a special number for Davidson's past and present clients to call with questions related to the incident. Current clients can call 1-800-909-6485, and former clients can call 1-800-736-6153, starting Wednesday morning. Additionally, the company is offering those affected a one-year enrollment to Experian's Triple Advantage three-bureau credit monitoring service The general surveillance of known air traffic movements by reference to a radar scope presentation or other means, for the purpose of passing advisory information concerning conflicting traffic or providing navigational assistance. at the Company's expense to help them begin the process of regularly reviewing their credit records for abnormalities. The letter recommends that clients: * Immediately report to their financial consultant any unauthorized activity in their Davidson accounts. * Contact credit and bank card issuers to review recent card charges and bank account transactions and should unauthorized charges appear, contact card issuers immediately to request that current accounts be closed and new cards be issued. * Consider placing fraud alerts on their credit files through contacting one of the three principal credit reporting bureaus (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion). * Review the identity theft materials posted for consumers on the Federal Trade Commission's Web site, www.consumer.gov/idtheft/ including the FTC's booklet, "Take Charge: Fighting Back Against Identity Theft." About Davidson Companies Davidson Companies is an employee-owned financial services The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. holding company founded in 1935 and based in Montana. The company has more than 930 employees who deliver financial products and services to individual and institutional investors Institutional Investor A non-bank person or organization that trades securities in large enough share quantities or dollar amounts that they qualify for preferential treatment and lower commissions. from offices in 16 states. Within the Davidson Companies family are these firms: D.A. Davidson & Co., a full-service investment firm; Davidson Investment Advisors Investment Advisor 1. A person making investment recommendations in return for a flat fee or percentage of assets managed, known as a commission. 2. For mutual fund companies, it is the individual who has the day-to-day responsibility of investing and monitoring the cash and , a professional money management firm; Davidson Trust Co., a wealth management and trust company; Davidson Fixed Income Management, a registered investment adviser providing money management and other fixed income services to mostly institutional clients; and Davidson Travel, a full-service travel agency. |
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