14 DAY TRIAL // In a letter sent to shareholders, JPMorgan Chase Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon has noted some interesting things about the cybersecurity challenges faced by the bank, and its plans for addressing the issues.
It turns out that, last year, the financial institution earned around $23 billion (€16.5 billion). Some of the company’s revenue has been used for cybersecurity.
In 2012, JPMorgan Chase spent $200 million (€144 million) to protect its IT infrastructure. 600 employees were tasked with handling cyber security-related matters. On the other hand, Dimon acknowledges that cybersecurity is becoming more and more problematic, which is why the company has and will continue to increase investment in this area.
By the end of 2014, the bank will have spent over $250 million (€180 million) annually on cybersecurity. Furthermore, the number of employees focusing on the effort will be 1,000.
“This effort will continue to grow exponentially over the years,” Dimon wrote in his letter.
“In our existing environment and at our company, cybersecurity attacks are becoming increasingly complex and more dangerous. The threats are coming in not just from computer hackers trying to take over our systems and steal our data but also from highly coordinated external attacks both directly and via third-party systems (e.g., suppliers, vendors, partners, exchanges, etc.).”
The CEO has pointed to the data breach suffered by Target as an example of attack resulting from a third-party system breach.
“We are continuing to carefully protect our perimeter from external threats, beef up our processes to detect internal threats and monitor related third-party systems to make sure their protections are adequate,” he said.
The financial institution supports the rapid adoption of more secure Europay Mastercard Visa (EMV) and tokenization systems for credit and debit card transactions. JPMorgan Chase is also building three state-of-the-art Cybersecurity Operations Centers to coordinate both cyber and physical security efforts.
The new centers will pull together not only information from the bank’s internal systems, but also from industry partners and the government.
“We’re making good progress on these and other efforts, but cyberattacks are growing every day in strength and velocity across the globe. It is going to be a continual and likely never-ending battle to stay ahead of it — and, unfortunately, not every battle will be won,” Dimon said.
“Rest assured that we will stay vigilant and do what we need to do to enhance our defenses and protect our company.”