JPMorgan hack exposed data of 83 million, among biggest breaches in history

October 4, 2014 – 12:18 AM

Names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses of the holders of some 83 million households and small business accounts were exposed when computer systems at JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) were recently compromised by hackers, making it one of the biggest data breaches in history.

The bank revealed the scope of the previously disclosed breach on Thursday, saying that there was no evidence that account numbers, passwords, user IDs, birth dates or Social Security numbers had been stolen.

It added that it has not seen “unusual customer fraud” related to the attack which exposed contact information for 76 million households and 7 million small businesses.

The people affected are mostly account holders, but may also include former account holders and others who entered their contact information at the bank’s online and mobile sites, according to a bank spokeswoman.

Security experts outside of the bank warned that the breach could result in an increase in crime as scammers will likely attempt to use the stolen information to engage in various types of fraud.

The bank’s customers should be on heightened alert for fraud, said Mark Rasch, a former federal cyber crimes prosecutor.

“All of this data is useful to hackers and identity thieves,” he said. “The kind of information that was stolen is not sensitive itself, but is frequently used to validate people’s identities.”

Source:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/03/us-jpmorgan-cybersecurity-idUSKCN0HR23T20141003