One of the largest banks in the US – JPMorgan Chase – has succumbed to a huge cyberattack, with accounts linked to 76 million households and seven million small businesses compromised.
The attack, which took place around June and July of this year, was originally thought to have affected around a million accounts. However, information included in a regulatory filing published by the bank on Thursday revealed the breach was far more serious than anyone had been expecting.
Information such as customer names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses were harvested from around 90 of the bank’s servers, with hackers also obtaining information on customer category, such as private bank, mortgage or credit card. Login information for online accounts with the bank is not believed to have been taken in the attack.
Bank officials said that so far it’d seen no evidence of any of the stolen data having been used for criminal purposes, though it’s continuing to monitor the situation. As a precaution, customers have been told to look out for any suspicious account activity, and to alert the bank immediately if they spot something unusual.
Reports suggest it’s still not fully understood how hackers managed to dig so deep into the bank’s computer systems. The FBI is currently investigating the breach.
News of this latest hack follows other recent ones of a similar magnitude – last month Home Depot revealed that data linked to around 56 million customer payment cards had been stolen by cyber criminals over a period of several months from April, while last year Target was hit in a breach involving 40 million payment cards.
In a statement on its website Thursday, JPMorgan Chase told its customers it was “very sorry” for any uncertainty caused by the attack, adding that it didn’t believe it was necessary to change password or account information.
[Source: Bloomberg]
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