While JPMorgan Chase & Co. is only the latest bank to suffer a security breach, a Syracuse University program is working to prevent similar cyber-attacks from occurring in the future.

Last week, Chase confirmed that a cyber-attack first reported in July had compromised information from 76 million households and 7 million small businesses.

It was revealed that through using an employee’s password, hackers pulled off one of the largest cyber-attacks in the company’s history, gaining access to millions of accounts and taking with them customer names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses.

Social security numbers, passwords and account numbers were not taken, the company said.

While the cyber-attack affected people all over the country, the breach was particularly newsworthy at SU due to the university’s close ties with Chase and the close proximity of Chase banks to campus. These kinds of cyber-attacks are the kinds of incidents SU and Chase have been working together to solve for the past five years.

Beginning in 2009, Chase began an internship program at SU, giving students the opportunity to work for the company in the information technology and cybersecurity department.

Gina Lee-Glauser, the vice president for research at SU, said students enrolled in the internship program don’t do side work or small jobs for the company; they have real jobs in areas such as security and product validation.

The offices where students work are in Lyman Hall, but they are kept separate from SU, Lee-Glauser said. She added that the students interning for JPMorgan Chase are fortunate to be able to work while on campus, but the work done is not associated with SU as a whole.

As for students who bank at Chase, Lee-Glauser advises that, “when going on online shopping, only use one credit card so that if it is compromised, it is easily tracked and it can be fixed quickly.”

Chase also said in a press release that the organization suggest its customers regularly watch over their accounts in order to prevent credit cards from being stolen.

Imaris Reyes, an undeclared freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences, just opened an account at Chase Bank and said she’s worried about the breach. If Reyes knew about the cyber-attack prior, she said she may not have considered changing to the bank.

Paul Thomas, a store manager at CVS, said the cyber-attack is concerning.

“It definitely makes me concerned how a big corporation can be hacked into with all of the security that they have,” he said.

Published on October 8, 2014 at 12:01 am

Contact Ali: Ali Linan