FBI Investigates 'Sophisticated' Cyber Attack On JP Morgan, 4 More US Banks

Bruce66423 writes with news of an electronic attack believed to affect at least five U.S. banking institutions this month, including JP Morgan, now being investigated by the FBI. According to the Independent, The attack on JP Morgan reportedly resulted in the loss of “gigabytes of sensitive data” that could have involved customer and employee information. It is said to have been of a level of sophistication beyond ordinary criminals, leading to speculation of a state link. The FBI is thought to be investigating whether there is a connection to Russia. American-Russian relations continue to be fraught amid the crisis in Ukraine, with sanctions ramped up. Bruce66423 asks "The quality of the attack, which appears to have led to 'gigabytes' of data being lost, is raising the prospect of a state being the source. The present culprit suggested is Russia... why the assumption it's not China — just because China isn't invading the Ukraine at the moment?" News of the attack is also at the New York Times, which notes Earlier this year, iSight Partners, a security firm in Dallas that provides intelligence on online threats, warned companies that they should be prepared for cyberattacks from Russia in retaliation for Western economic sanctions. But Adam Meyers, the head of threat intelligence at CrowdStrike, a security firm that works with banks, said that it would be “premature” to suggest the attacks were motivated by sanctions.

Comments

Which "other banks"?

[RevWaldo]

No mention of them in the articles linked.

.

Fear mongering fearfully old

[Anonymous Coward]

Yawn

same old...same old...

Private "cybersecurity" firm reports data breach. Lots of data transferred. Must be "state" actor APT! But who? China? Russia? Who is US government/media currently demagoguing against? Maximum fear factor achieved!

Re:Fear mongering fearfully old

[bill_mcgonigle]

Must be "state" actor APT! But who? China? Russia? Who is US government/media currently demagoguing against? Maximum fear factor achieved!

They forgot North Korea this time - must be an off-cycle.

You didn't need to go AC on this - we're all thinking the same thing. Are they just getting so much worse at the propaganda or are we finally wisening up?

Re:Fear mongering fearfully old

[slimshady76]

They forgot the NSA too... Who would benefit the most from the sensitive data stolen? Even more, who would benefit the most from the fear campaign?

Re:Honest question from a non-USian

[jratcliffe]

If it crosses state lines, and/or international borders, then the FBI gets involved. Also, if the crime is highly technical, and requires specific expertise, the FBI often gets involved as well (since the police dept in city/state X might not have the same level of capability).

Re:Honest question from a non-USian

[bill_mcgonigle]

Why does the FBI get involved? is it because the events span multiple states, or because the banks have so much clout? If this had happened to google or microsoft, for example, would the FBI get involved?

The FBI will exercise its power whenever it can, but almost always only if oligarchs are involved. Sure, they can't avoid the bad PR of ignoring a kidnapping, but if Grandma's money gets stolen because her paypal account is hacked, then don't expect her to get any help - only the institutions that are politically connected yet could afford their own investigation get that kind of help (while Grandma is essentially helpless). They'll excuse it by saying "oh, we can only help if the dollar amount exceeds $X because we have limited resources" but what that really means is they only help rich enough people, who (shocker) also tend to be the ones capable of making campaign donations. The help is means-tested, but not in the way one might expect.

In various roles I've heard from local chiefs of police who are trying to help out various citizens, just because there is no other option for them. It's not uniform at all, but investigating online crimes is not what those guys have training for.

If somebody here has had FBI help for small-dollar crimes where that was their only option, then I'd love to hear counterexamples.

im growing to hate the word cyber.

[nimbius]

Cyber washes over so much of the actual problem with these companies. it implies some val kilmer secret agent jack bauer bullshit that does not exist in practical terms as the situation applies to entities like Chase. Its a convenient means of misdirecting attention at best.
Lets take a step back and call this what it actually was. Chase involuntarily discharged sensitive information about employees and customers. We can name chase because its too big to fail, but four other banks were part of this incident and we cant name them because to do so would cause egregious harm to their market reputation and force them to spend a pittance on re-issuing credit/debit cards. Chase will work to scapegoat this problem ad infinitum to the nearest foreign superpower that has been demonized/sanctified by politicians for this purpose and business will continue as usual. Chase will not accept liability for its shit-tier software, security practices, or disinterest in its customers and clients because it would harm the largest bank in the world and perhaps shave a sliver of profit off this quarter.

Re:im growing to hate the word cyber.

[Rich0]

There is actually a deeper issue than corporate security competence.

Imagine that a bunch of soldiers stormed the front door to their datacenter with APCs, tanks, and artillery support. They then removed hard drives and proceeded across the border to some other country. Would you consider this a bank security problem?

Banks don't have this problem because the government provides physical security against these kinds of threats. Sure, the bank is expected to lock the doors and have some guards, but they aren't expected to stop an attack of arbitrary determination.

With the internet we benefit from the free exchange of data across national borders. However, at the same time this means that computer security can be subjected to attacks of arbitrary sophistication, and national governments have generally not intervened.

Now, I'm sure more could be done to secure the average corporate network, the reality is that state actors are free to develop more and more sophisticated attacks free of interference. If I wanted to hack into some foreign bank I probably would have the FBI kicking down my doors before I got too far with it. The same is not true of an NSA agent doing the same thing.

I think the only real solution to this sort of problem involves border control. Establish agreements with nations to cooperate on prosecuting computer crime, and heavily firewall communications or block them entirely at the borders. Parties to the agreement would agree to not accept traffic from countries that aren't parties to the agreement. The downside to such a policy is obvious - far less freedom of communication, and that will probably support dictatorships and such abroad since we'll effectively be providing the firewalls for them.

Either that, or we just accept that data stored on networked computers is going to be insecure. There is no reason to think that security is a game where the defenders can ever win - that certainly hasn't been our experience in physical security.

Re:Honest question from a non-USian

[jeffmeden]

Why does the FBI get involved? is it because the events span multiple states, or because the banks have so much clout? If this had happened to google or microsoft, for example, would the FBI get involved?

Simply put, the FBI is the investigator of last resort. Local law enforcement (even in large cities like NYC where JPMC is based) are woefully ill-equipped to investigate this sort of thing.

Re: Honest question from a non-USian

[IMightB]

That's right the police are too busy training for paramilitarized riot control and shooting unarmed poor people to care about online stuff.

Re:When they don't blame the Chinese ...

[Rei]

Yeah, what evildoers, giving Russia a slap on the wrist for the petty offense of invading and taking over part of another country that had insolently decided to no longer be under Russia's thumb. Next up, the evil tyrants in American and Europe will send Putin a sternly worded letter! Maybe he won't even get a Christmas card from Biden this year!

See: US to sanction Russia over annexation of Virginia

Re:When they don't blame the Chinese ...

[swv3752]

Like the virus that attacked Iran's nuclear centrifuge?