JP Morgan Hacking Incident: Was It Revenge From Russia?
Former NSA chief Keith Alexander has floated the idea that the June hacking of JP Morgan may have come from Russia. Investigators are still looking into the data breach though they have made some conclusions.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the hack was confined to JP Morgan and did not affect other banks. Initially there was confusion, causing police to suspect that the hacking could have spread to multiple financial institutions. Banks were calling the FBI asking for details in the JP Morgan case, investigators took that as an indication that the other banks were also hacked.
The data breach, which was described as “significant and egregious,” shouldn’t be too concerning for Chase bank customers. JP Morgan reported that the firm has not experienced a rise in cases of fraud.
That leaves the question, if the hackers were not interested in stealing account information, what were they interested in?
Keith Alexander believes that hacking a U.S. bank would be the perfect way for Russia to hit back for the sanctions.
“How would you shake the United States back? Attack a bank in cyberspace. If it was them, they just sent a real message: ‘You’re vulnerable.'”
Alexander has the credentials to give his analysis weight. As the former NSA chief and head of the U.S. Cyber Command, he oversaw the department during Russia’s invasion of Georgia, when the U.S. came under a series of cyber-attacks that are believed to have come from Russia. The former NSA chief continued saying,
“If you can steal the data — if you can reach in that far and steal it — you can do anything else you want. You collapse one bank and our financial structure collapses.”
The JP Morgan incident appeared to be perpetrated by people with advanced skills, further indicating that they were backed by a national government.
JP Morgan has not commented on Alexander’s theories.
As previously reported by the Inquisitr, suspicions of Russian cyberattacks on financial institutions have been on the rise. One attack that was never realized, a cyber-bomb in the Nasdaq had the potential to be particularly damaging to the U.S.
The cyber world seems to be becoming less and less of a safe place. The recent fappening, hacking incident that resulted in dozens of celebrity naked photos being traded around the Internet, has taken the media by storm.
With the recent surge in attacks and fear of another incident at JP Morgan, there is one clear winner, the cyber-security business.
[Image Credit: Joe Mabel via Wikimedia Commons]
