Then there's the sheer scale of the breach. Let's repeat: Seventy-six million households and 8 million small business were exposed. According to The New York Times, JP Morgan believed only one million accounts were affected a few weeks ago. So there's the possibility that the number may rise even further.

But for those exposed by JP Morgan's data breach, personal information leaks mean months of guarding against identity theft. "There's now a potential array of fraudulent activity possible without the consumer even knowing," Jeremy Edwards, lead analyst at IBISWorld, said. "If you get a phone call that seems like it's coming from a financial institution with your information, you're more likely to believe the scammer.”



In addition, for the past two decades consumers have flocked towards one-stop-shop megabanks and away from smaller regional chains, meaning that there are few options for those seeking a more secure bank. "There’s no real reason to think that Bank of America will have better systems than JP Morgan," said Edwards. JP Morgan, according to Edwards, was seen as being one of the best at security. If they can get hacked, so can just about anyone.

In the near-term, the JP Morgan breach will be an ongoing headache for the bank and its customers. The bank, which reports that hackers gained access to root access to many of its servers, will have to essentially strip out and replace much of its internal IT infrastructure, a process that Edwards estimates could take "months at the least." During that time, JP Morgan customers will have to monitor their own finances more closely than they would have in the past.



But according to Georgetown professor of law Adam Levitin, there's really no way of preventing this type of attack from happening again. "JP Morgan spends crazy amounts of money on IT security and yet they can still be hacked," he said. "There’s really no way you can be connected to the Internet and keep things safe."

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