Adam Levin spoke with Alex Witt from MSNBC’s NewsNation on the JP Morgan data breach, where a staggering number of 76 million customer credit and debit accounts were compromised and 7 million small businesses were affected, which dwarfed in size in comparison to its earlier report. JP Morgan, the largest bank in the US, had been touted as the financial institution with ironclad security, but as with many of the recent breaches, hackers found a way into the system through its weakest link, vulnerabilities in its web programs and applications.
Hackers gained privileged access into the company’s database and were able to drill deep into its 90 servers. Adam advised that consumers had an out if their debit or credit card was compromised because they could cancel the card and get a new one with zero liability. The key is that although no Social Security Numbers or DOB’s were stolen, hackers were able to get names, addresses, phone numbers and emails. By having millions of emails, the real danger is that hackers could use a “trifecta of ishings”, a stream of phishing attacks on consumers post breach, including phishing and spear phishing through email, vishing or voice phishing, and smishing or using phishing texts. With these elaborate identity theft schemes, hackers are able to lure consumers into clicking on links that infect their computer with malware and allow fraudsters to steal their personal and financial information. Adam warned consumers to think before they clicked on any suspicious links and to sign up for transactional monitoring from their bank.
