SBI cyberattack: Bank confirms data breach as records of 3,900 customers exposed and put on dark web
SBI said the incident had not significantly affected its core banking operations, financial performance or business continuity.
PTC News Desk: The State Bank of India (SBI) has reported a cyber incident in which hackers may have accessed customer records. In a filing with stock exchanges, the bank said it suspected that 3,897 customer records containing personally identifiable information had been exposed on the dark web.
However, SBI said the incident had not significantly affected its core banking operations, financial performance or business continuity.
On October 16, the bank received alerts from its threat intelligence service provider, the Defence Cyber Agency and the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) about the suspected exposure of customer data.
SBI said an initial analysis of around 3.75 lakh records found on the dark web identified 3,897 records containing personal information. The exposed details reportedly included customers’ names, registered mobile numbers, dates of birth, gender, email addresses and residential addresses.
The records also contained branch details, customer information file (CIF) identifiers, lead IDs and metadata related to loan applications, leads and other files.
Core banking services remain unaffected: SBI
Although customer records may have been exposed, SBI said its core banking services continued to function normally without disruption.
The bank said it had immediately activated its cyber incident response and containment measures.
SBI added that a detailed investigation was needed to verify the authenticity and completeness of the exposed records, identify the possible source of the breach, determine the extent of the data exposure and assess the risks to customers and the bank.
The bank said it was closely monitoring the situation and would take appropriate action in line with regulatory requirements as the investigation continued.
Earlier, media reports cited claims by an anonymous hacker group called Siriusim, which allegedly posted on the dark web forum BreachForums that it had obtained information related to 3.75 lakh SBI customers. However, SBI has not identified the group responsible for the incident.
The incident comes amid growing regulatory focus on cybersecurity in the banking sector. In July, Bank of Baroda acknowledged a data leak that reportedly exposed around 1 terabyte of customer information.