Authorities closing in on hackers who stole JPMorgan data: NYT

[NEW YORK] Federal authorities investigating the data breach at JPMorgan Chase & Co are confident that a criminal case will be filed against the hackers in the coming months, the New York Times reported, citing people briefed on the investigation.

JPMorgan said last October that names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses of about 83 million customers were exposed in a hacking attack, making it one of the biggest data breaches in history.

Law enforcement officials believe that several of the suspects are "gettable," meaning that they live in a country with which the United States has an extradition treaty, the newspaper reported.

The case is advancing quickly partly because the attack was not as sophisticated as initially believed, and law enforcement authorities were able to identify at least some suspects early on, the Times reported.

The investigation is being handled at the highest levels of law enforcement, with the FBI in New York assigning several senior agents to the matter along with a top prosecutor with the computer crimes division at Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara's office, the newspaper said.

JPMorgan officials declined to comment.

The FBI and Bharara's office were not immediately available for comment outside regular US business hours.

REUTERS