Russia ruled out as culprit in Chase cyber security breach, U.S. officials say

(Reuters) — The Russian government has been ruled out as sponsor of a cyber attack on JPMorgan Chase & Co. disclosed in August, U.S. law enforcement officials said Monday.

Officials from the FBI and Secret Service told a news conference at the Financial Services Roundtable in Washington that authorities believe the attack was the work of cyber criminals

Early news reports in August said that investigators feared the attack was conducted on behalf of the Russian government as retribution for economic sanctions imposed by the United States.

"There is no indication this was the result of sanctions," said Joseph Demarest, assistant director of the FBI's cyber division.

The bank has said the names and contact information of some 83 million customers were accessed, making it one of the largest breaches to date based on the number of records compromised. Yet there is no evidence that account numbers, passwords, user IDs, birth dates or Social Security numbers had been stolen.