Report: JP Morgan hackers unsuccessfully targeted others

Hackers who stole information from millions of JP Morgan Chase customers also unsuccessfully tried to break into other financial institutions, according to sources cited in the Wall Street Journal. 

The newspaper reported that officials investigating the breach have shared information about the nature of the attack with other financial institutions to see if they were also targeted.

{mosads}The other banks, according to the report, said they did not believe they were breached but have reported traffic from Internet addresses in their network logs that match suspects in the JP Morgan incident. The hackers appeared to be searching for weaknesses in a number of banks, according to the report.  

The government shared the information with the other banks, which were not identified, on a need to know basis. 

JP Morgan revealed last week that the extent of the breach was much larger than initially thought when it was reported in August. Information from 76 million households and 7 million small business accounts was taken. 

However, the bank said the hackers did not access account or Social Security numbers of clients. Rather, it was limited to information like names and some contact information. 

The FBI began investigating the incident in August. And according to reports at the time, it was looking into JP Morgan Chase and four other unnamed banks. 

The Justice Department has called the breach troubling and a number of lawmakers have called on Congress to take up cybersecurity legislation in the wake of the news.