Millions of Chase accounts compromised

First reported in early September, the suspected data breach of J.P. Morgan Chase has now been confirmed. Hackers were able to gain access to the accounts of 76 million households and 7 million small businesses. Fortunately, they were not able to obtain any financial information related to these accounts - however they did obtain personal information such as names, addresses, and email addresses.

The data breach was first discovered in July, and is suspected to be the work of Russian hackers. While no payment information was stolen, the idea that hackers had any access to the systems of a financial institution is of great concern to the security community. It has also been reported that the same hacking group obtained access to nine other banks, although those banks have not been identified.

If you are a Chase customer, the biggest concern right now is phishing and scams. Since thieves obtained contact information, they could potentially contact customers pretending to be the bank in order to gain access to financial accounts. If you are a Chase customer, you should be incredibly diligent in verifying someone contacting you. Thieves will try anything - including telephone calls, emails, and even snail mail. While financial information is not suspected to have been compromised, you should also keep an eye out on your bank statements and quickly report any suspicious activity.

With all of the security breaches lately, there has been an increased focus on companies to invest both more monetary and human resources into protecting consumer information. Many companies who did not have CISO positions before now do, and companies are hiring additional security staff as well. I expect to see an increase in degree and training programs related to security in the near future as well.