Wall Street's biggest names are racing to determine what customer data was compromised after hackers breached SitusAMC, a New York financial technology company that processes billions of loan documents annually. The November 12 cyberattack has JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley scrambling to assess potential exposure across their customer bases.
The financial sector just got hit where it hurts most - through a critical third-party vendor that most consumers have never heard of but that handles some of Wall Street's most sensitive data. SitusAMC, a New York-based financial technology company, confirmed over the weekend that hackers breached its systems on November 12, sending shockwaves through major banks that rely on the firm's services.
The timing couldn't be worse for the financial giants. According to Bloomberg and CNN reports citing sources, SitusAMC has already sent breach notifications to several banking titans including JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley. The company's client roster reads like a who's who of American finance, extending beyond banks to pension funds and state governments.
What makes this breach particularly concerning is SitusAMC's role as a behind-the-scenes powerhouse in financial infrastructure. The company provides compliance technology and document processing for over a thousand commercial and real estate financiers, handling what its website describes as billions of loan-related documents annually. In the interconnected world of modern banking, companies like SitusAMC serve as critical middlemen, processing vast amounts of non-public banking information that flows between institutions.
The hackers appear to have been methodical in their approach. SitusAMC's breach disclosure reveals that attackers made off with "corporate data associated with its banking customers' relationship with SitusAMC, as well as accounting records and legal agreements." Notably, the company emphasized that no encrypting malware was deployed, suggesting this was a pure data exfiltration operation rather than a destructive ransomware attack.
"The scope and nature of the cyberattack remains under investigation," SitusAMC stated, while assuring clients that the incident is "now contained" and systems remain operational. But for the affected banks, the investigation phase is where the real work begins.
