By Emily Glazer
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. said Thursday morning it isn't
seeing "unusual fraud" and it is working closely with law
enforcement to determine the scope of a computer-hacking
attack.
The comments from J.P. Morgan come a day after the Federal
Bureau of Investigation said it said it was "working with the
United States Secret Service to determine the scope of recently
reported cyber attacks against several American financial
institutions."
The investigation is focused on J.P. Morgan and as many as four
other banks, in what people familiar with the probe described as a
significant breach of corporate computer security.
On Thursday, the largest U.S. bank by assets added that it is
taking "additional steps" to safeguard sensitive or confidential
information and will contact relevant parties as it learns more
about who may have been impacted. It stressed customers should
contact the bank -- as always -- if any suspicious activity on
their accounts is detected and they will not be liable for
fraud
Cybersecurity experts began probing the possible J.P. Morgan
breach earlier this month, according to people familiar with the
investigation.
Those people said the evidence gathered so far suggested hackers
were able to make a significant foray into J.P. Morgan's computer
system. People with knowledge of the probe said it appeared between
two and five U.S. financial institutions may have been affected.
The names of all targeted banks couldn't be immediately
determined.
The attack appears to have been caused by malicious computer
code, known as malware, according to a person familiar with the
matter.
Thefts of U.S. corporate data have in the past often come from
hackers based in China, Russia or the former Soviet Union, though
that doesn't mean the cyberattacks involve those governments. Just
as in the U.S., hackers in those countries can act on their own and
sell stolen data to other organizations.
The style of the attacks and the targets--large U.S. financial
institutions--have led some people briefed on the investigation to
suspect a possible Russian or Eastern European link. Russian
organized crime often targets large financial institutions. But
several people with knowledge of the investigation cautioned it is
too early to tell who was behind the attacks.
Hackers appear to have originally breached J.P. Morgan's network
via an employee's personal computer, a person close to the
investigation said. From there, the intruders were able to move
further into the bank's inner systems. Employees often use software
to tap in to corporate networks from home through what are known as
virtual private networks.
Such an attack would mark the latest instance in which a large
corporate network was breached by a weak external link. When
hackers stole 40 million payment-card numbers from Target Corp.
last year, they originally infiltrated the retailer by stealing a
ventilation contractor's password.
In mid-August, cybercriminals hacked in to nearly 1,000 grocery
stores around the U.S. The common link: Supervalu Inc. of Eden
Prairie, Minn., which managed the stores' technology services and
had remote access to those locations, people familiar with that
incident have said.
In recent weeks, J.P. Morgan called numerous security vendors
with concerns it had a problem, people close to the investigation
said. The bank in recent months hired a number of employees with
Defense Department experience because the firm treats cybersecurity
as a problem akin to military security, people familiar with the
matter said.
Cybersecurity has been a chief concern--and cost--for large
banks over the past few years.
J.P. Morgan, along with other banks, has been vulnerable to
attacks in the past, particularly so-called distributed denial of
service threats, known as DDoS. These attacks knock websites
offline by flooding them with useless traffic. Iranian hackers
aimed a DDoS attack at J.P. Morgan, U.S. Bancorp, PNC Financial
Services Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. in 2012, according to U.S.
officials.
Write to Emily Glazer at emily.glazer@wsj.com
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