A Morgan Stanley worker, said to have stolen data from up to 350,000 of the financial firm’s wealth management clients and posted some of it online, has been fired according to the firm.
Names and account numbers of 900 customers were said by the company to have been leaked onto the internet but has since been removed, following reports that in December a post to Pastebin had offered to sell six million records from the firm.
A statement released to the press said: "Morgan Stanley takes extremely seriously its responsibility to safeguard client data, and is working with the appropriate authorities to conduct and conclude a thorough investigation of this incident."
Passwords and social security numbers were said to have been unaffected, and the company has said it will notify all clients that might have been affected in the breach.
Robert Gottlieb, a lawyer for the financial adviser Galen Marsh, confirmed to the New York Times that his client had taken the data, but added that he had not leaked it.
"To be clear, Mr. Marsh did not sell or ever intend to sell any account information to anyone," Gottlieb said. "He did not post the information online; he did not share any account information with anyone or use it for any personal financial gain."
"He is devastated by what has occurred and is extremely sorry for his conduct."
