Shareholder-tracking company Equiniti shells out $850K to SEC over breaches

Equiniti (formerly American Stock Transfer) agreed to pay an $850,000 SEC settlement after breaches in 2022 and 2023 allowed unknown attackers to divert $6.6M from client accounts by hijacking an email chain and creating fraudulent accounts tied to real clients using stolen Social Security numbers; Equiniti recovered portions of the funds and reimbursed affected clients, while the SEC criticized insufficient transfer-agent safeguards.