Technology

Federal workers spared in JPMorgan hack

Federal employees who were issued JPMorgan Chase cards through their job were not among the millions of customers whose information was stolen in an attack on the company earlier this year, according to a report

About half a million government employees spanning nearly 40 agencies are served by JPMorgan under a program called SmartPay, according to Nextgov.com.  

{mosads}None of the customer information from those cards was accessed because they log in using a different website than regular customers, according to the report. Both JPMorgan and the General Services Administration, which runs the program, said the cyberattack did not touch the SmartPay system. 

The GSA says the program overall serves more than 350 federal agencies, organizations and tribal governments. Nearly $30 billion is spent through the program in about 100 million transactions, according to the agency. 

Not all the SmartPay business flows through JPMorgan. The program is negotiated through a number of major banks, including Citibank and US Bank. 

JPMorgan revealed this month that information from 76 million households and 7 million small-business accounts was stolen, a total much larger than initially thought when the breach was reported in August. 

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