Prosecutors Announce Charges in Connection With J.P. Morgan Hack

Federal prosecutors unsealed indictments on Tuesday against three men who allegedly engaged in a sprawling cybercriminal enterprise that hacked into J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and several U.S. financial institutions.

This is the first time prosecutors have named suspected hackers and directly linked them to a massive cyberattack against J.P. Morgan last year, part of an alleged scheme that prosecutors are calling "the largest theft of customer data from a U.S. financial institution in history."

The 68-page indictment against Gery Shalon, Joshua Samuel Aaron and Ziv Orenstein listed 23 charges, including computer hacking, wire fraud and securities fraud. Charges against them were filed earlier this year, but the defendants hadn't been publicly linked to the J.P. Morgan hack.

The indictment alleged the defendants hacked into 12 companies, including J.P. Morgan and Dow Jones & Co., the parent company of The Wall Street Journal, according to a person familiar with the matter. Two other victims were online brokerages E*Trade Financial Corp. and Scottrade Inc., the person said.

A J.P. Morgan spokeswoman said the bank has partnered with law enforcement "in bringing the criminals to justice" and it continues to cooperate with them on cybercrime. Ashley Huston, a spokeswoman for Dow Jones, didn't have an immediate comment.

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 10, 2015 11:05 ET (16:05 GMT)

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