Hack At JP Morgan Hits 76M

Oct. 03—JPMorgan Chase admitted yesterday that hackers stole customer information in a stunning cyberattack affecting 76 million households and 7 million businesses — a huge data security failure that experts said will only become more frequent.

"This is something that really, really presents a serious threat, and this could be just the tip of the iceberg," Steve Weisman of Bentley University told the Herald. "Before, it was just retailers. Now you're dealing with banks who generally have been better at protecting their security. It's open season now."

The huge data breach was carried out as early as June, but not discovered until mid-August, said spokeswoman Patricia Wexler. Hackers stole customers' names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses from the company's servers, but more sensitive information, such as bank account numbers, Social Security numbers and passwords were not involved, JPMorgan said.

"We have identified and closed the known access paths," Wexler said.

Anthony Roman of the risk management firm Roman & Associates said it is possible that corporate secrets — including upcoming mergers and acquisitions — could also have been accessed, depending on what systems were breached.

"This isn't a new trend," said Roman. "This is an existing pattern that we think is going to expand. The hackers are capitalizing on fundamental weaknesses in corporate computer security."

Brian Krebs of KrebsOnSecurity.com said the length of time the hackers went undetected by JPMorgan is alarming, calling into question whether they plundered more than just customer information.

"It's entirely possible the bad guys weren't even after the information, they were after something else," said Krebs. "If they have a month inside your network and they have time to cover their tracks, it could be difficult to find out what they touched."

The JPMorgan data breach comes on the heels of other extensive security lapses at major corporations, including Target and Home Depot.

"We are very sorry that this happened and for any uncertainty this may cause you," JPMorgan said in a message to customers on its website. "There are always lessons to be learned, and we will learn from this one and use that knowledge to make our defenses even stronger."

Herald wire services contributed to this report.

___

(c)2014 Boston Herald

Visit the Boston Herald at www.bostonherald.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services