JPMorgan Chase has reported a significant increase in hacking attempts on its systems over the past year.
During a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mary Callahan Erdoes, the chief executive of the bank’s asset and wealth management division, highlighted the growing threat. She stated, “The fraudsters get smarter, savvier, quicker, more devious, more mischievous. It’s so hard and it’s going to become increasingly harder, and that’s why staying one step ahead of it is really the job of each and everyone of us.”
JPMorgan allocates approximately $15 billion annually to technology and employs over 60,000 technologists, many of whom focus on safeguarding the bank from cyber threats. Erdoes emphasized the enormity of the challenge, noting, “You want your money moving around the world in today’s environment where AI is taking over and people can crack in? We have 45 billion, billion attempts to breach our systems daily.”
She remarked on the troubling statistic that the number of hacking attempts is twice as high as last year. “Who’s going to invest the money to protect your assets?… We have 62,000 technologists in our company. We have more engineers than Google or Amazon. Why? Because we have to, and we want to, and you need us to protect that.”
JPMorgan later clarified Erdoes’ remarks, explaining that she was referencing observed activity from their technology systems, which includes both malicious and non-malicious attempts. This data is monitored and processed to enhance security. Examples of such activity include user logins for employee virtual desktops and automated scanning activities that are often not specifically targeted.