WHODUNIT

JPMorgan Hack Sets Off Obama's Alarms

Financial system is vulnerable.

President Obama and his national security team are being periodically briefed on this summer's massive cyberattack launched against JPMorgan and nine other financial U.S. institutions. The FBI is still investigating the attack but can't figure out who did it. “The question kept coming back, ‘Is this plain old theft, or is Putin retaliating?’” said one senior official. “And the answer was: We don’t know for sure.’’ What we do know is that the financial system of the United States isn't safe from intrusion or potential sabotage. It's not clear what the hackers' motive was though: intruders didn't get far enough to access account information or move any money across 76 million affected households. In any case, JPMorgan didn't have to tell customers about the breach under federal or state law.