JPMorgan Chase hacked, reflects vulnerability of the American Bank system

JPMorgan Chase is one of the largest banks in the United States, and now can lay claim to being a part of one of the largest data breaches in the history of the United States.

The company has succumbed to a massive cyber-attack, which has compromised accounts linked to 76 million households. However, personal accounts weren’t all that was compromised. Small businesses were also significantly impacted by this data breach, adding another 7 million small businesses that could be added to the list of compromised entities.

JPMorgan-Chase-hacked

Initially, speculation was that the breach was minor and that it was an outlier for an otherwise safe year for the company. However, the attack which took place around June and July of 2014 was only thought to have impacted a million accounts. A regulatory filing by the bank this week revealed a significantly different number.

It was much, much more serious than JPMorgan Chase had expected, or regulators for that matter. And this was no minor breach, either.

Customer names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, customer category information, mortgage information, credit card information and possibly more. However, the one safe portion of the data throughout the breach were customers online login information for online accounts or accounts to utilize online banking tools.

Officials with the company have said that 90 servers were hacked, but so far nothing has suggested that the stolen data has been used for any criminal purposes. However, they aren’t throwing the towel in, either. The company said that as a precaution, customers have been told to take a look at their accounts on a regular basis, and take note of any suspicious activity – and contact their bank immediately if any anomalies appear.

The FBI is investigating the breach, however; this isn’t the first breach that customers have watched their personal information and personal data go flying out the window. It isn’t clear now how the hackers managed to get so far into JPMorgan Chase’s computer system, but this will be a major learning experience for the company as well.

The company released a statement apologizing for the security breach and any issues that could stem from it, but noted that customers shouldn’t have to change any passwords or account information as result of the breach. But, for those customers impacted by the breach – it still may be a good idea to take the few extra moments to change the passwords associated with your JPMorgan Chase accounts, so you can rest a little easier – knowing 76 million accounts were compromised.

http://www.thehoopsnews.com/2014/10/05/1345/facebook-whatsapp-acquisition-approved-eu-commission/

Last year Target had a breach which impacted 40 million payment cards. Home Depot was attacked and compromised around 56 million payment cards, and now this instance involving 76 million households. Clearly, this is something that is becoming a trend, and something that is worth keeping a very close eye on whether you’ve been personally impacted by these hacks, or not because it’s clear that the next one is never too far off in the future.