Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin said, “Privacy is not a function. Privacy is hygiene,” after hackers infiltrated several US banks and stole customer information.
Reports indicate that hackers targeted JPMorgan Chase, Citi and Morgan Stanley in a cyberattack on mortgage technology company SitusAMC. The breach highlighted the vulnerability of sensitive data at banks and the ease with which large systems can expose customer information.
Banks are at risk because stolen data exposes sensitive customer data
SitusAMC fell victim to a cyber attack on November 12, 2025, exposing large amounts of sensitive company information, including accounting data and legal documents. In this case, customer data may have been compromised. The company announced that while the breach has stopped, its systems are currently operational and that it has notified federal authorities of the incident.
Notably, no encrypting malware (such as ransomware) was used, suggesting that cybercriminals may have attempted to evade detection. According to multiple reports, some of the banks at risk of being affected include JPMorgan Chase, Citi and Morgan Stanley. The full extent of the leaked data remains to be seen. Still, the threat that a third-party breach could affect multiple Wall Street banking giants underscores an emerging threat to supply chains that can be exploited through cyberattacks.
Hackers infiltrated SitusAMC’s security systems and stole customer information associated with major banks. They stole accounting papers, legal agreements and other sensitive client and customer information, so company officials are investigating the extent of the theft and its possible use in fraudulent activities.
Experts say it is very risky to store large amounts of personal and business information in one place because hackers can use stolen information for illegal activities that damage the reputation of both companies and their customers.
JPMorgan Chase, Citi and Morgan Stanley were all notified that their customer data may have been compromised, and the news quickly spread on social media platforms. Financial news reports and tech commentators on
Members of the technology and crypto communities used the incident to highlight the dangers of storing sensitive data without robust security measures. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin even said that privacy should be as essential as hygiene so that banks and digital companies treat it as a routine.
Ethereum developers are creating new tools to keep people’s information safe
Buterin wrote an essay in April outlining a plan for Ethereum to improve privacy by using stealth addresses, which hide transaction details. ETH would also display only the necessary information in specific situations, and zero-knowledge tools would allow users to communicate without having to understand complicated cryptography to protect themselves.
Shiv Shankar, CEO of Boundless, said privacy should be a routine practice to prevent hackers and bugs from releasing sensitive information and causing real harm to people using the network.
The Ethereum Foundation introduced a new privacy-focused research cluster in October, hiring 47 engineers, cryptographers, coordinators, and researchers to collaborate on projects that improve ETH’s security and privacy for users. The team also showed off a privacy-focused browser wallet and software toolkit called Kohaku, which Nicolas Consigny and Buterin created. The software helps users protect their information when using ETH applications.
Bitcoin developers are also working on Taproot upgrades and wallet-level improvements that will make transactions harder to trace and more secure. At the same time, developers are building new Ethereum Layer-2 solutions where privacy is a fundamental part of the system, rather than adding it later.
Privacy-focused companies like Zcash have also become increasingly popular because they allow users to hide their transaction data. A Nasdaq-listed company bought more ZEC, and the price rose 469% in one month, which only proves that investors are starting to recognize the value of privacy.