JPMorgan Chase, BNY Mellon Respond To Major Data Breach After Bank Regulator Abruptly Suffers Security Breakdown

Financial giants are abruptly cutting connections with one of the top bank regulators in the US amid a major security warning.

JPMorgan Chase and Bank of BNY Mellon have stopped electronically sharing data with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) following a severe breach of the regulator’s email system, Bloomberg reports.

The OCC says it has notified Congress of a “major information security incident” involving unauthorized access to several of its executives’ and employees’ emails. The contents of the emails included “highly sensitive information relating to the financial condition of federally regulated financial institutions,” according to the OCC.

Upon consultation with the Department of the Treasury, the OCC determined the incident met the conditions necessary to be classified as a “major incident.”

According to people familiar with the matter, banks routinely provide financial information to the OCC that not only includes standard financial data, but also highly confidential information about terrorism, espionage and other investigations.

JPMorgan and BNY both declined to comment, but a spokesperson for the OCC said the agency is working with cybersecurity experts to analyze the breach and further evaluate its IT systems.

“This work is ongoing, and the OCC is engaged with its supervised institutions to keep them informed as these investigations progress…

OCC’s onsite examiners continue to retain access to bank information as necessary to conduct supervisory activities, while ensuring the security of the data.”