Data Breach to Affect Pa. Cardholders

Hackers gained access to the personal information of about 26,000 Pennsylvanians who use debit cards to receive jobless and workers' compensation benefits, the Pennsylvania Treasury Department said Thursday.
 
The incident was part of a wider security breach affecting 465,000 holders of JPMorgan Chase & Co. prepaid cash cards nationwide.
 
The breach affects only cardholders who used the JPMorgan Chase UCard Center website between mid-July and mid-September, the Treasury Department said. Michael Fusco, a spokesman for JPMorgan, said the bank found no evidence any information was used improperly.
 
JPMorgan first contacted the Pennsylvania Treasury Department on Tuesday, agency spokesman Gary Tuma said.

JPMorgan has referred the matter to law enforcement and would not explain details of how the breach occurred, the Treasury Department said.
 
The Pennsylvania agency wants details from JPMorgan Chase about the bank's response to the breach, including an explanation for any delay in notifying it and the additional measures it will undertake to protect against a recurrence.
 
The department said most of the personal information that might have been viewed includes card numbers, dates of birth, user IDs, email addresses. Information on external bank accounts might have been exposed, as well, if a cardholder completed a transaction to it, the department said.
 
Cardholders are being contacted by letter with instructions and are being urged by JPMorgan Chase in the meantime to report any transactions they do not recognize by calling the phone number on the back of their card, the department said.
 
The Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry posted a statement on its unemployment compensation website, www.uc.pa.gov, advising debit card holders of the breach and providing a telephone number to call the bank.
 
The breach does not affect banking customers who have credit or debit cards, or customers of the prepaid Chase Liquid card, according to the bank.