The massive data breach at JPMorgan, which compromised the personal information of 76 million households, is "an invasion of the US financial system" and a threat to American national security, a leading senator has warned.
JPMorgan, America's largest bank, disclosed Thursday that hackers had accessed the names, phone numbers and email addresses of more than a quarter of the US population during a June cyber attack.
The FBI was already investigating the hacking but the newly-disclosed scale of the security breach has led to warnings in Washington that the incident goes far beyond consumer protection.
"This is an invasion of the US financial system that goes to the core of our national security," said Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat who has urged private companies to step up their cyber security systems.
JPMorgan came under attack during the summer but only recently realised the the scope of the data breach, which it reported in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Thursday.
The bank said there was no indication that account information had been compromised or that any customers had lost money in the attack but conceded that customers' contact details had been lost on a massive scale.
Mr Blumenthal told The Telegraph that the bank's slow response in figuring out the magnitude of the breach was "very troubling".
"They should have known much earlier and they should have warned customers whose information is at risk much sooner," the Connecticut senator said, saying the breach was "almost beyond imagination in its magnitude".
It remains unclear who was behind the attack although suspicion has fallen on foreign hackers.
The New York times suggested some of the hackers were based in southern Europe, while Bloomberg reported the breach originated from Russia. A spokesman for Vladimir Putin has previously dismissed allegations of Russian involvement as "nonsense".
telegraph.co.uk
JPMorgan, America's largest bank, disclosed Thursday that hackers had accessed the names, phone numbers and email addresses of more than a quarter of the US population during a June cyber attack.
The FBI was already investigating the hacking but the newly-disclosed scale of the security breach has led to warnings in Washington that the incident goes far beyond consumer protection.
"This is an invasion of the US financial system that goes to the core of our national security," said Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat who has urged private companies to step up their cyber security systems.
JPMorgan came under attack during the summer but only recently realised the the scope of the data breach, which it reported in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Thursday.
The bank said there was no indication that account information had been compromised or that any customers had lost money in the attack but conceded that customers' contact details had been lost on a massive scale.
Mr Blumenthal told The Telegraph that the bank's slow response in figuring out the magnitude of the breach was "very troubling".
"They should have known much earlier and they should have warned customers whose information is at risk much sooner," the Connecticut senator said, saying the breach was "almost beyond imagination in its magnitude".
It remains unclear who was behind the attack although suspicion has fallen on foreign hackers.
The New York times suggested some of the hackers were based in southern Europe, while Bloomberg reported the breach originated from Russia. A spokesman for Vladimir Putin has previously dismissed allegations of Russian involvement as "nonsense".
telegraph.co.uk
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