Last night, JPMorgan Chase & Co revealed the scope of a data breach that affects 83 million households and small business accounts. There's good news and there's bad news.


The bad news is hackers have stolen the contact information for 76 million households—that's nearly 65% of all US households!—and 7 million small businesses: names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses. This makes this latest data breach one of the biggest in history. The information may also include former account holders, Reuters says, not just current ones.

The good news, however, is that Chase has no evidence that passwords, account numbers, user IDs, birthdates, or Social Security numbers had been stolen. And it hasn't seen any "unusual customer fraud" since the cyber-attack happened in mid-August.


In a customer notice on its site, Chase says:

Your money at JPMorgan Chase is safe: Unlike recent attacks on retailers, we have seen no unusual fraud activity related to this incident.

Importantly, you are not liable for any unauthorized transaction on your account that you promptly alert us to. We are very sorry that this happened and for any uncertainty this may cause you. We don't believe that you need to change your password or account information. Click here for answers to questions you might have. As always, we recommend you use care with your accounts and information, as we describe in our Security Center. We're here to help Attacks like these are frustrating. There are always lessons to be learned, and we will learn from this one and use that knowledge to make our defenses even stronger.

Chase customers—current and former—should be on the lookout for any fraudulent activity on their accounts and report it as soon as possible.

Also be extra vigilant about possible phishing schemes, since the hackers will likely try to use the personal information they stole to get you to reveal your other account info. And although Chase doesn't think you have to change your password, it's probably a good idea to do so—just make sure you choose a really secure one. Oh, and please turn on two-factor authentication if you haven't done so already.


JPMorgan hack exposed data of 83 million, among biggest breaches in history | Reuters

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