Good day. Italian banking giant UniCredit SpA is investigating the possibility of a data breach that the lender believes could be related to a similar hacking incident at Capital One Financial Corp., according to a person familiar with the matter.

The company is examining whether a directory held on a cloud server was accessed without authorization, the person said. UniCredit said in a statement that it had contacted the relevant authorities and is actively investigating the matter. “Data security and privacy are our key priorities at all times,” the statement said.

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Capital One, the fifth-largest U.S. credit-card issuer, said Monday that a hacker accessed the personal information of approximately 106 million card customers and applicants, one of the largest-ever data breaches of a big bank. The Federal Bureau of Investigation said Tuesday it seized digital devices from the alleged hacker’s home that referenced Capital One and other companies that may have been targeted.

In a blog post Tuesday, cybersecurity blogger Brian Krebs published a screenshot that purports to show a list of files containing data that the hacker accessed. One of the files was named “unicredit.” This list was posted to a discussion group on the digital-messaging service Slack in late June, according to screenshots reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

More on Capital One:

• The Federal Bureau of Investigation is examining whether the woman charged with stealing Capital One customer data from an Amazon.com Inc. cloud service successfully hit other targets. Michigan State University said Wednesday it was working with the FBI and assessing whether the hacking suspect also got into its systems, though it said it had no knowledge of a breach. Like Capital One, Michigan State is an Amazon Web Services customer. UniCredit SpA, Italy’s largest bank, also said Wednesday it is investigating the possibility of a breach related to the Capital One incident.

The U.S.’s use of sanctions against Iran is a “multi-pronged maximum economic pressure campaign,” and the effort is eating into Iran’s military and economy, a U.S. Treasury Department official said Wednesday.

Iran’s military spending has decreased significantly as its economy has worsened and oil exports have declined, Sigal Mandelker, the Treasury’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in prepared remarks delivered at a Washington, D.C., event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank.

U.S. sanctions on Iran and its proxies have also had a direct impact on Hezbollah, a Lebanon-based organization that the U.S. has designated as a terrorist group, as the U.S. cracked down on its financing networks, Ms. Mandelker said.

The U.S., which reimposed sanctions on Iran after President Trump’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal last year, has targeted some of Iran’s most profitable sectors, such as oil and industrial metals, cutting off billions of dollars in revenue to the country, Ms. Mandelker said.

“Our tools have been so effective that we frequently find ourselves at the tip of the spear as new security threats and challenges emerge around the globe,” she said.

—Mengqi Sun

• The Trump administration imposed sanctions on Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif in a marked escalation of tensions between the two countries, citing what top officials called unacceptable provocations by Tehran. The sanctions freeze any assets Mr. Zarif might have in the U.S. and prohibit his travel across U.S. borders. Because companies and people who engage with Mr. Zarif are at risk of being subsequently sanctioned by the U.S., it could also complicate his international travel, financing and business.
   
• A powerful Chinese billionaire has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges that he evaded nearly $2 billion in tariffs as part of a conspiracy to smuggle massive quantities of aluminum into the U.S. The indictment, which was reached in May but not unsealed until this week, accuses Liu Zhongtian, founder of Chinese aluminum giant China Zhongwang Holdings Inc., of conspiring to defraud the U.S. through a sprawling scheme spanning the company’s headquarters in Liaoning, China, ports in Los Angeles and a remote desert in Mexico. It alleges that the scheme began in 2008 and has continued to the present day.
   
• Nasdaq Inc. is testing an artificial-intelligence surveillance system this summer to monitor its U.S. stock market and spot previously unknown methods of illegal equities trading. Officials at the exchange said the experiment has uncovered activity that its surveillance group is investigating, without providing further details.
   
• PG&E Corp. acknowledged the central findings of a Wall Street Journal article, stating that it knew for years that its aging power lines could fail and spark wildfires. But the California utility said it disputed the article’s suggestion that it had neglected maintenance. The company made the disclosures in a federal court filing Wednesday after William Alsup, a U.S. district judge in Northern California, ordered PG&E to respond “on a paragraph-by-paragraph basis” to the Journal article published July 10.

• For consumers affected by the 2017 Equifax Inc. data breach who were hoping to claim $125 as part of the settlement related to it, the Federal Trade Commission is now saying: Please don’t. According to a blog post the FTC released Wednesday, the response to the settlement has been “overwhelming.” Some 4.5 million people visited the FTC’s settlement website in the week since the settlement was announced.
   
• Pearson PLC, the British maker of educational software, is warning school districts that a data breach has exposed details on thousands of students, chiefly in the U.S. Pearson was notified about the cyberattack by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in March, according to a person familiar with the matter. The breach affected more than 13,000 school and university accounts, some containing information—such as names, dates of birth and email addresses—on thousands of students each. Who perpetrated the hack is still unknown, the person said.

• Leon Black, chief executive of Apollo Global Management LLC, said Wednesday that he doesn't think his previous association with jailed financier Jeffrey Epstein is impacting the firm’s relationship with investors. Mr. Epstein, who pleaded not guilty earlier this month to sex-trafficking counts stemming from what federal prosecutors alleged was a yearslong scheme to procure and sexually abuse dozens of girls, provided tax and estate-planning advice to Mr. Black and his family office and foundation over the years.
   
• Google told engineer Kevin Cernekee in 2018 he was being fired for misuse of equipment. Mr. Cernekee says he was really fired for being an outspoken conservative in famously liberal Silicon Valley.
   
• Japan Post Holdings Co.’s insurance unit, battered by low interest rates that have hurt its investment returns, said it may have victimized more than 100,000 customers by selling them disadvantageous products. “We betrayed our customers’ trust badly. It feels as if my heart is breaking,” said Japan Post Holdings President Masatsugu Nagato after bowing in apology at a news conference Wednesday.

• Brazilian mining giant Vale SA posted a net loss in the second quarter after it set aside additional funds—more than $1 billion—related to a deadly accident at a tailings dam that claimed 270 lives in January. 
   
• BMW AG,  the German luxury car maker, said its second-quarter net earnings tumbled 29%, hit by exchange rate fluctuations and manufacturing costs for electric vehicles.

• The four major broadcast networks have filed a suit in federal court to shut down Locast, a nonprofit streaming service funded in part by AT&T Inc. and founded by a Dish Network Corp. lobbyist that offers their feeds to subscribers for no charge. CBS Corp., Walt Disney Co.’s ABC, Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal and Fox Corp. argue that Locast is retransmitting the signals of their local TV stations without permission, in violation of copyright law. The fees that broadcasters receive from pay TV distributors have become crucial to their long-term survival, and there is concern that if Locast grows in popularity, it could cut into that revenue stream.
   
• In the job a year to the day, London Stock Exchange Group PLC Chief Executive David Schwimmer has wasted little time signaling plans to put his stamp on the European exchange operator.
  The veteran Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker is a key architect behind the LSE’s $14.5 billion deal announced Thursday to acquire financial-information and terminal business Refinitiv Holdings Ltd. from a Blackstone Group Inc.-led consortium. 
   
• Barclays PLC plans more cost cuts to offset challenging business conditions, after net profit slid 19% in the second quarter. Chief Executive Jes Staley is trying to convince investors that the bank’s strategic mix of consumer, business and investment banking can produce stable returns and provide resilience in downturns. But its shares have fallen 20% in a year and an activist shareholder, Sherborne Investors, has asked for a strategic review.

• General Electric Co. Chief Executive Larry Culp wants a new finance chief, and he intends to play a bigger-than-customary role in the selection process as he approaches his sophomore year at the helm of the industrial conglomerate. Mr. Culp said Wednesday he plans to speak with “new friends and old” in vetting candidates to replace departing Chief Financial Officer Jamie Miller, underscoring the importance of the relationship between the CEO and CFO in the company’s transformation.
   
• Molson Coors Brewing Co. said its chief executive is stepping down as the company struggles with declining sales and a consumer shift away from light lagers to Mexican imports, craft beers, wine and spirits. Mark Hunter, who oversaw the acquisition of MillerCoors, making Molson the No. 2 brewer in the U.S., will retire in September, the company said. He will be replaced by Gavin Hattersley, who currently serves as CEO of Molson’s U.S. subsidiary.

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Send comments to the Risk & Compliance editor, Jack Hagel, at jack.hagel@wsj.com.