Hacked:Russian Hackers behind the JPMorgan Chase hacking? Federal Bureau of Investigation examines the leads
When asked to confirm the news of Russian involvement, J. Peter
Donald, an FBI spokesman in New York, declined to comment. This is a
developing story and TechWorm will bring you latest updates as they
happen.
29 Aug 2014
One of the worlds bellwether financial giants and United States of
America's largest bankers, JPMorgan Chase were hacked in the middle of
August 2014. It is suspected that a group of hackers based in Russia
attacked JPMorgan Chase by infiltrating into their servers and stealing
sensitive information. As per information available in addition to
JPMorgan Chase & Co, at least one more bank based in the US was also
hacked. The United States investigating agency, Federal Bureau of
Investigation's preliminary reports suggest that the hacks may have
been launched from Russian soil in a possible retaliation to American
sanctions of Russia post the Ukrainian crisis.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is a very well known American multinational
banking and financial services holding company. It operates the the
largest bank in the United States and manages a total of US$2.515
trillion in assets. Forbes ranks its as the world's third largest public
company based on a composite financial company ranking. In addition to
the bank the company also operates a hedge fund unit which is the
second largest hedge fund in the United States.
The hack attack resulted in the loss of gigabytes of sensitive data
of JPMorgan Chase customers. This was revealed by unidentified sources
who are helping in the investigations. FBI is also investigating
whether this hack attack is linked to the earlier hacks carried out on
major European banks. This will help FBI establish whether the hackers
used a similar vulnerability to infiltrate the JPMorgan Chase servers.
One of the major European bank was hacked using a software flaw known
as a 'zero-day' vulnerability in one of the banks’ websites. The 'zero
day' flaw was used in such a manner by the hackers that the security
experts believed there more to the hacking than what meets the eye. The
manner in which the hackers cracked the security firewall suggest it to
be a feat far beyond comprehension of the normal cyber criminals. Also
this hacks happened when there was a big standoff between the European
Union (EU) and Russia over then President, Viktor Yanukovych's apparent stand to go with Russia rather than EU. Following the upheaval in Ukraine, Russian
started amassing troops on the Russo-Ukrainian border and in a tit for
tat action, EU and USA announced tight financial sanctions against
Russian companies and banks.
The current hack of JPMorgan Chase & Co also points to a similar
kind of sophistication which is out of the realm of normal cyber
criminals. Though FBI has just started investigating the hack, the
trail points towards cyber criminals from Russia and/or Eastern European
countries with involvement of some state actors in the crime.
Considering the size and scale of the attack and the amount of monies at
risk, National Security Agency is also aiding FBI in finding the crooks
as per the unidentified source.
James Lewis of Center for Strategic and International Studies think
tank based in Washington feels that the Russians state actors may be
behind this attack. While commenting on the hack, he said, “The way the
Russians do it, to the extent we can see into the process, is they
encourage certain targets. The Russians typically keep open the options
to do something more, and the question now is what would trigger that
and what would our response be.”
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