Leading financial services firm JP Morgan will have to face complaints from its 83 million clients which include households and small businesses after hackers were able to compromise the company's computer systems in one of the massive security breaches in history.
JP Morgan, a firm that provides services like asset management, investment banking, and treasury and securities services has been slapped by hackers who reportedly breezed right through the company's security systems and exposed the names, addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses of JP Morgan's clients totalling 76 million households and 7 million small businesses.
The hackers began inputting malicious software into the company's system began in June and ended in Aug.
Ironically, JP Morgan announced in April to shell out $250,000 on its cyber security measures.
Independent Security experts as well as former federal cyber crimes prosecutor Mark Rasch warned the customers that scammers would reportedly use the breach as an opportunity to try to acquire the stolen information in illegal transactions.
"All of this data is useful to hackers and identity thieves," Rasch stated.
"The kind of information that was stolen is not sensitive itself, but is frequently used to validate people's identities," he added.
Tal Klein, VP of cyber security company Adallom is worried that the breach could cripple consumer confidence back.
He said that it is hard for people to regain trust in companies that they assumed are safe from hackers
"Until now the assumption has been that the companies that get breached are the ones that have poor security practices, but we know that JPMorgan had a good security program and that they invest heavily in this area," Klein stated.
"So what we are waking up to is that the fundamental nature of security is broken," he stated.
Meanwhile, the digital security industry has been haunted in the past by several data breaches that occurred recently among major commercial retailers in America like Target and Home Depot.
