Mikah SargentJPMorgan Chase and a number of other banks lost "gigabytes of customer data" in recent cyberattacks, according to a new report from Bloomberg.
The outlet says checking account information "used to drain funds" was among the data stolen. One of Bloomberg's sources says the security breach has been linked to Russian hackers.
MIKE RILEY, BLOOMBERG: "One of the victim banks has already identified the hackers, not just as Russian, but they think that they are state-sponsored, which indicates that there's some hand of the Russian government behind this."
Details remains unclear, and there are conflicting reports, at least concerning the origin and motivation of the breach.
The New York Times says government officials and security firms brought in to investigate aren't yet confirming the hack originated in Russia. And while some have suggested the hack could be motivated by Western economic sanctions on Russia, one security expert told the Times that assumption would be "premature."
Especially given this information from The Washington Post, which quotes an analyst who said, "We have seen Russian intelligence services target financial institutions for the purpose of espionage." In other words, retaliation typically doesn't look like this. If the hack originated in Russia, it's likely espionage.
A report from The Guardian says the FBI is "exploring links to both the Russian government and to Russian criminal networks" as well as "Eastern European criminals."
The FBI is working together with the U.S. Secret Service to investigate the breach. It's unclear what financial damage might have been caused by the breach, although JPMorgan says it hasn't seen any unusual evidence of fraud.
This video includes images from Getty Images.
