Several American banking giants and mortgage lenders are reportedly struggling to assess how much of their customers’ data was stolen during a cyberattack on a New York financial technology company earlier this month.
SitusAMC, which provides technology to more than a thousand commercial and real estate financiers, confirmed in a statement over the weekend which had identified a data breach on November 12.
The company said unspecified hackers had stolen corporate data associated with its banking clients’ relationship with SitusAMC, as well as “accounting records and legal agreements” during the cyberattack.
The statement added that the scope and nature of the cyberattack “remains under investigation.” SitusAMC said the incident “is now contained” and its systems are operational. The company said no encryption malware was used, suggesting the hackers focused on extracting data from the company’s systems rather than causing destruction.
According Bloomberg and cnnAccording to sources, SitusAMC sent data breach notifications to several financial giants, including JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley. SitusAMC also counts pension funds and state governments among its clients, according to its website.
It is unclear how much data was taken or how many US banking consumers may be affected by the breach. Companies like SitusAMC may not be well known outside of the financial world, but they provide the mechanisms and technologies for their banking and real estate clients to comply with state and federal rules and regulations. In its role as an intermediary for financial clients, the company handles large amounts of non-public banking information on behalf of its clients.
According to SitusAMC’s website, the company processes billions of loan-related documents annually.
When contacted by TechCrunch, Citi spokesperson Patricia Tuma declined to comment on the breach. Tuma did not say whether the bank received any communication from the hackers, such as a demand for money.
Representatives for JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday. SitusAMC CEO Michael Franco also did not respond to our email when we contacted him for comment Monday.
The FBI is investigating the breach at SitusAMC. An FBI spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment outside of U.S. business hours.
