FBI Probes Reported Cyber Attacks On US Banks

The FBI and the Secret Service are investigating reports of cyber attacks on JPMorgan Chase and other US financial institutions.

Institutions were attacked this month by Russian hackers, a possible retaliation against US sanctions aimed at Russia due to the Ukraine crisis, says Bloomberg.

The New York Times said JPMorgan and at least four other US banks had been infiltrated in coordinated attacks, citing four people familiar with the investigation.

The newspaper said the attacks syphoned off huge amounts of data, including checking and savings account information.

JPMorgan later confirmed it was investigating a possible cyber attack and said it was working with law enforcement to determine the scope but added it was not seeing unusual fraud activity.

"We are working with the United States Secret Service to determine the scope of recently reported cyber attacks against several American financial institutions," the FBI said in a statement.

JPMorgan, the largest US bank by assets, had previously said large companies experience cyber attacks nearly every day.

"We have multiple layers of defence to counteract any threats and constantly monitor fraud levels," said spokeswoman Trish Wexler.

The Times said several private security firms had been hired to conduct forensic reviews of infected networks.