look news india
State Bank of India (SBI), the country’s largest public sector bank, has clarified the situation by issuing an official clarification amid reports of sensitive data of customers being leaked on the dark web. The bank has admitted that in the preliminary investigation of about 3.75 lakh records circulating on the internet underground forum (dark web), records related to 3,897 customers have been identified. However, with this disclosure, the bank management has assured its millions of account holders that the main banking core system (CBS) and internal servers of the bank are completely secure. The bank says the scope of those affected is extremely limited compared to its large customer base and all routine operations of the bank are operating normally without any disruption.
Considering the seriousness of the matter, when the alert was received from cyber security monitoring organizations and Defense Cyber Agency (DCA), the technical team of SBI started analyzing the data dump present on the dark web. The investigation found that 3,897 entries in the large files circulating on the dark web contained Personally Identifiable Information (PII). These records mainly include customer name, gender, registered mobile number, date of birth, email ID, address along with some metadata related to branch code, CIF number and loan lead. The Bank has confirmed that this data exposure has been prima facie limited in number, but an in-depth forensic investigation is being conducted to finally confirm its authenticity and source.
After the data surfaced on the dark web, the biggest question was whether there was any threat to the account holders’ money or net banking credentials. On this, bank sources and cyber experts have clarified that in the investigation so far, no evidence has been found of any customer’s login password, UPI PIN, debit/credit card CVV or core banking credentials being leaked. This means that money cannot be withdrawn directly from any account in an unauthorized manner. Despite this, since basic information such as name, phone number and email are present in the leaked data, affected customers remain at risk of being defrauded through social engineering and phishing calls. Cyber fraudsters can pose as bank officials and make fake calls in the name of lottery, loan approval or KYC update, regarding which it is advised to be cautious.
SBI has clarified that this incident has been taken extremely seriously and an independent cyber security forensic agency authorized by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has been entrusted with the investigation of the entire matter. This independent agency will find out whether this data was leaked directly from any channel of the bank, went out of the system of a third-party vendor or marketing agency, or whether it is old collected data that has been newly presented on the dark web. The bank has also clarified that after completion of the investigation, necessary remedial and preventive steps will be taken as per the regulatory guidelines so that there is no lapse in the security framework in future.
In fact, it was being claimed on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) and cyber monitoring handles that hackers had breached 3.75 lakh accounts and thousands of PDF documents of SBI. Putting an end to this confusing situation, SBI clarified the scale of the data. The bank said that out of the 3.75 lakh records examined, a large number of entries were mere technical logs, duplicate files or non-sensitive entries, of which only 3,897 files were found to contain personal information of genuine customers. This number is very small compared to the bank’s huge base of more than 50 crore account holders, hence calling it a large-scale system breach would be factually incorrect.
Cyber security experts have stressed on following basic digital precautions for SBI account holders across the country including Lucknow, Kanpur, the capital of Uttar Pradesh. Even in branches located in major business areas of Lucknow like Gomti Nagar, Hazratganj and Lalbagh, officials are giving general advice to customers to avoid digital fraud. No customer should ever share the OTP received on his phone, net banking username, password or debit card PIN with any unknown caller. SBI never pressures you to update KYC of your account or asks for confidential information by phone call, SMS or sending a link on WhatsApp. If a consumer notices any suspicious activity, they can immediately contact the nearest branch or the official helpline of the bank.
This incident has come to light at a time when the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is continuously giving strict warnings to financial institutions regarding customer data protection and third-party vendor risks. In the era of digital lending and online servicing, banks have to coordinate with various fintech companies and call centres. In such a situation, even one weak link in the system poses a risk of data leakage. Financial analysts believe that timely disclosure of the matter by SBI and setting up an independent investigation is an important step towards corporate transparency. Data security audit and privacy norms are expected to be further tightened in the banking sector in the coming times.