New Data Breach Means New Security Threat for Big Banks

Nick Rowe | Photodisc | Getty Images

JPMorgan Chase, Citi, US Bank, and at least 15 other major US corporations have had customer data exposed in a new security breach at Epsilon Data Management.

While Epsilon's claims that only names and email addresses have been exposed are meant to be reassuring, each bit of data brings can bring an attacker closer to compromising your account. If an attacker knows where you bank, your email address, and your physical address it certainly gives them an advantage that they didn't have before knowing that information. Especially if the data disclosed involves a large user base.

For example, now that many account security settings require users to include both alpha and numerical characters in their passwords, some users may decide to use their street number and street name to meet password complexity requirements.

While it's less than a nightmare security scenario for the banks involved, it isn't entirely benign either.

Think of it as themosaic theory of hacking.

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Companies mentioned in this post

JPMorgan Chase

Citi

US Bank

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