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 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.
Tal Klein, vice president with the cybersecurity firm
Adallom, said that the breach could undermine confidence in the security of banks and
other companies that people assume are well protected from hackers. Still,
JPMorgan advised customers on its website that it does not believe they need to
change their passwords or account information.
Company spokeswoman Patricia Wexler said that the bank is
not offering credit monitoring to its customers because no financial
information, account data or personally identifiable information was
compromised.
At the end of August, JPMorgan said it was working with U.S.
law enforcement authorities to investigate a possible cyber attack. As with
home break-ins, it can take victims of data attacks months to discover what, if
anything, is missing.
Click
here to access the full article on Reuters.