Private Equity Firm Apollo Confirms Data Breach Amid Hacking Wave Targeting Financial Giants

Apollo Global Management, one of the world’s largest private equity firms with $938 billion in assets under its management, has confirmed a data breach in which hackers stole reams of personal information from the company’s cloud systems.

The breach comes a month after security researchers sounded the alarm on a new hacking campaign targeting financial and private equity giants. According to a letter filed with California’s attorney general, hackers used a social engineering attack to gain access to Apollo’s cloud environment between July 6 and July 10.

The hackers took names, birth dates, contact information, including home addresses, and Social Security numbers. The letter does not specifically say who had their personal information stolen, such as Apollo employees or individuals at companies it owns.

Apollo has around 5,000 employees as of February 2026, according to the company’s public regulatory filings. The now-confirmed hack comes weeks after security researchers at Google warned that hackers were targeting private equity companies and financial giants as part of a widespread extortion campaign.

Google says the hackers, who go by various names — Falcon, Helix, Pink, and Redact — rely largely on social engineering attacks that involve calling employees and pretending to be IT helpdesks or support. The goal is to trick the employees into entering their passwords and multi-factor authentication codes in spoofed login portals, which allow the hackers to gain access to corporate networks.

After stealing data, the hackers then extort the companies into paying a ransom or threaten to publish the data on their leak site. Some of the attacks netted the hackers ransoms as much as $750,000, according to Google.

Until 2025, TechCrunch was a subsidiary of Yahoo, an advertising tech company owned by Apollo. This connection raises questions about the potential motivations behind the hack and the level of vulnerability within the company’s systems.

Apollo’s human resources chief Matthew Breitfelder stated that the company is taking the incident seriously and is working to identify the affected individuals and provide them with necessary support. However, the company has not commented on whether it paid the hackers a ransom or not.

The data breach highlights the growing threat of social engineering attacks on financial and private equity firms. As hackers become increasingly sophisticated, companies must take proactive measures to protect their systems and employees from these types of attacks.

In light of this incident, it is essential for companies to prioritize cybersecurity and educate their employees on the dangers of social engineering attacks. By doing so, they can reduce the risk of data breaches and protect sensitive information.

Apollo’s data breach serves as a reminder of the importance of robust cybersecurity measures in the face of growing threats from hackers.