JPMorgan attackers altered bank records

The number of US banks that have apparently been targeted and breached by hackers is slowly rising, as newer reports say that seven financial organizations have been hit.

Unnamed sources also say that the scope of the attacks is also larger that initially thought, as JPMorgan reported that the attackers changed and deleted some bank records.

According to security and banking experts, cyber crooks have been known to do things like that, albeit rarely.

According to Adam Kujawa, head of Malware Intelligence at Malwarebytes Labs, it’s unlikely that the attackers are “average criminals.”

“If hackers are capable of accomplishing this, it means they have spent a significant amount of time studying the [bank’s] records system before attempting any kind of serious manipulation,” he commented for Cnet. “It’s not impossible, however, if they were able to modify records using high-level credentials and do it in a way that was undetected.”

Again, at this time nothing concrete about the identity of the hackers can be said. Both the FBI and JPMorgan are keeping mum as the investigation is ongoing.

As the names of the other victimized financial institutions have not been publicly shared, customers of all US banks should be on the lookout for unusual activity in their accounts, and carefully peruse each email received from their bank, as it might be a fake.

A short time before the breaches were uncovered, JPMorgan customers were at the receiving end of expertly crafted malicious emails purportedly sent by the bank.