WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF
62,000 people and $15 Billion helps protect JPMorgan from cyber attacks. But that’s not enough when we look at what cyber threats are coming …
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As we continue to see a variety of exponential technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Generative AI (GAI) make it easier and cheaper than ever before for hackers to create malware, ransomware, and launch cyber attacks it’s been revealed that JPMorgan Chase grapples with an onslaught of approximately 45 billion daily hacking attempts, a staggering figure that has doubled since the previous year. This alarming surge underscores the intensifying cybersecurity challenges confronting not only JPMorgan Chase but also other financial giants on Wall Street.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Mary Callahan Erdoes, the head of JPMorgan Chase’s asset and wealth management division, revealed the bank’s formidable countermeasure strategy. With an annual investment of $15 billion and a workforce of 62,000 technologists, JPMorgan Chase leads the charge against cybercrime, surpassing even tech behemoths like Google and Amazon in the number of engineers employed.
The Future of Cyber keynote, by Futurist Matthew Griffin
Erdoes emphasised the imperative need for such extensive technological reinforcement, elucidating, “The fraudsters get smarter, savvier, quicker, more devious, more mischievous. It’s so hard, and it’s going to become increasingly harder.”
The banking sector across the United States and Europe has witnessed a notable uptick in cyber attacks in recent years. Some attribute this surge to Russian actors, speculated to be retaliating against sanctions imposed in response to their invasion of Ukraine.
The ever-advancing landscape of AI has also played a pivotal role in the sophistication and frequency of cyber attacks. Erdoes, speaking at Davos, highlighted the bank’s staggering expenditure on technology and the substantial technologist workforce solely dedicated to combating the rising tide of cybercrime.
JPMorgan Chase’s reported daily hacking attempts, initially stated as 45 billion, were later clarified by the bank. It explained, “Ms. Erdoes was referring to observed activity collected from our technology assets, malicious or not. This activity is then processed by our monitoring infrastructure.”
Examples of such activity include user logins to employee virtual desktops and scanning activity, often automated and non-targeted.
Western financial institutions, particularly those in the banking sector, have borne the brunt of an unprecedented surge in cyber attacks over the past two years. Russian hackers, in response to sanctions levied against their country, have been implicated in several of these incidents. Simultaneously, the application of AI by cybercriminals has contributed to a substantial rise in both the frequency and sophistication of attacks.
Sophos, a cybersecurity company, reported a 64 percent surge in ransomware attacks in the finance industry last year, nearly double the 2021 figures. JPMorgan Chase itself fell victim to one of the most significant cyber attacks on a bank a decade ago, resulting in the compromise of data from 83 million accounts, including 76 million households and 7 million businesses.
