More than 71,000 customers of retirement plan administrator The Pension Specialists may have had their personal data breached in a cyber theft that occurred last year, according to a notification filed by The Pension Specialists with the Office of the Maine Attorney General on Feb. 14.

The company became aware of the cyber incident on Feb. 24, 2024, when it experienced a network disruption. After initiating an investigation with cybersecurity experts, it determined that certain files may have been accessed or acquired without authorization between Feb. 18, 2024, and Feb. 20, 2024, the company reported in the filing.

It did not specify what type of data was leaked, saying only that it gathered contact information for all the individuals that may have been involved.

The victims of the breach received retirement plan services from the company through their employers’ workplace retirement saving plans. Of the 71,443 people affected, 41 resided in Maine, according to the filing.

“TPS takes the privacy and security of all information within our possession very seriously,” the company wrote in a sample letter notifying customers of the breach.

In the letter, The Pension Specialists noted that it had no evidence of misuse, or attempted misuse, of the stolen information. It assured customers that it implemented measures to enhance security and minimize the risk of a similar incident occurring in the future.

The company also offered affected customers complimentary identity-monitoring services through Kroll, a consumer identity-protection provider.

The company did not respond to an email inquiring about how many of its plan sponsor institutional clients were involved nor did it respond to a request for comment.

The cyber breach follows multiple other breaches at other institutions. In October, for example, Fidelity reported a data breach that leaked the personal information of more than 77,000 customers. Several firms that used Infosys McCamish Systems as a third-party vendor, including TIAA and T. Rowe Price, also reported being snared in a data breach that hit more than 6 million people in 2023. The Infosys-related data breaches were reported last year.

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