JPMorgan share price down, cyber attack scope estimated at 76 million households

JPMorgan Chase and Co, the largest US bank, said that a cyber breach that was first reported in August had given hackers access to the personal information of 76 million households and 7 million businesses, one of the largest attacks on a financial institution.

According to people familiar with the matter, the attack remained unnoticed for two months as hackers breached JPMorgan servers for short intervals between mid-June and mid-August. At the time of the incursions disclosure, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said it was working with the Secret Service and the lender to identify and seal all access paths.

People with insight on the investigation said that the attack was likely emanating from Russia and that it was carried out by using malicious computer code, also known as malware. The first step was to gain access to the banks network by exploiting an employees password and then move on to its systems.

JPMorgan said that the cyber attack resulted in the theft of addresses, phone numbers, e-mails and names of 76 million households, or two-thirds of American households, and 7 million businesses. However, the lender said that there was no evidence of account information, such as account numbers, passwords, social security numbers and dates of birth being stolen.

JPMorgan reaffirmed that it hasnt seen any unusual levels of fraud since the attack, adding that customers wont be held liable for any unauthorized transactions, if the bank is notified. The lender said its customers dont need to update their account information or passwords but warned that the main threat now is phishing, a practice in which users are typically deceived to share their account information by criminals using various techniques, including mimicking an official website.

According to cybersecurity experts, although the attack was among the largest ones disclosed, it is far less severe compared to previous major incursions, such as this years attacks carried out against Home Depot and Target, as the damage to clients will be minimal. Last month, the retailer of home improvement and construction products and services reported that a cyber breach had impacted around 56 million credit cards of customers who had purchased goods at the companys stores, while a year ago a hacker attack against Adobe Systems Inc. led to the exposure of more than 100 million usernames and password-related data.

Apart from tapping into the banks contact information pool, hackers also accessed internal data identifying customers by category, revealing whether they are clients of the private-bank, auto, mortgage, or credit-card divisions. However, that information did not reveal any specific numbers, such as money held with the bank or the balance on a customers mortgage, rather if the client is only a customer of the division.

James Lewis, a cybersecurity expert in Washington at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said for the Wall Street Journal: “If the J.P. Morgan hack was an old-fashioned bank heist, the hackers likely weren’t steps away from the vault but in the wrong building altogether.”

JPMorgan Chase and Co fell by 1.56% on Thursday in New York to close at $58.84 per share, trimming its one-year advance to 12.96% and valuing the lender at $221.31 billion. According to CNN Money, the 28 analysts offering 12-month price forecasts for JPMorgan Chase and Co have a median target of $67.00, with a high estimate of $76.00 and a low estimate of $58.00. The median estimate represents a +13.87% increase from the last price of $58.84.

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