A breach of banking giant JPMorgan’s servers has compromised the personal information of 14,335 Connecticut residents who receive state payments in the form of prepaid debit cards, Treasurer Denise L. Nappier said Thursday.
Details that could have been exposed to hackers include names, social security numbers, bank account numbers, card numbers, birthdates, passwords, home addresses, email addresses and answers to website log-in security questions.
State agencies use the JPMorgan debit cards to pay tax refunds, unemployment benefits and child support payments.
The breach — which JPMorgan said affected as many as 465,000 accounts across the country — happened between July and September, but the bank did not inform Nappier until this week.
The treasurer said the delay dismays her and “raises concerns over its culture of compliance and broader government issues.”
Nappier has asked JPMorgan for more information about how the breach happened and said she will be evaluating the bank’s future as a state vendor.
JPMorgan told state officials it had found no evidence of improper activity on the Connecticut accounts, but the company is notifying all affected cardholders and providing two years of free credit monitoring.
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