State Bank of India data breach case: SBI says customer funds unaffected

New Delhi: India’s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) on Friday said that account balances and funds of customers remain safe with the bank in the aftermath of a cyber attack incident, exposing 3,897 customer records on the dark web.

SBI has issued statement on social media platform X. In an official statement titled, "Customer Safety & Awareness – Important Update" SBI has informed its customers that the account balances are safe.

"Further to our earlier post regarding the recent cyber incident, the Bank has individually informed all customers, whose data was identified as being involved, through email and/or WhatsApp. We reiterate that your account balances and funds are safe with us," said SBI.

"Customers are advised to follow safe digital banking practices, never share their OTP, PIN or password with anyone, and remain vigilant against suspicious calls, messages and emails," State Bank of India further said.

 Earlier this week SBI experienced a data breach, with 3,897 customer records found exposed on the dark web. The bank said it had received communications from its Threat Intelligence Service Provider, the Defence Cyber Agency and CERT-In regarding an alert concerning suspected exposure of customer data.

During preliminary analysis of approximately 375,000 records available on the dark web, 3,897 customer records containing Personally Identifiable Information (PII) were identified, the bank had said in an exchange filing.

The exposed information reportedly included customers’ registered mobile numbers, dates of birth, names, gender, email addresses, residential addresses, branch and CIF identifiers, lead IDs and metadata associated with loan or lead records and other related files, it added.

The state-owned lender said it promptly activated its cyber incident response and containment protocols and engaged an independent CERT-In-empanelled cybersecurity agency to conduct a comprehensive assessment and investigate the nature and extent of the alleged compromise.

A detailed investigation is underway to establish authenticity and completeness of the exposed data, determine potential source and extent of exposure and assess associated risks, it said.

With IANS Inputs