India has faced its largest data breach, with theft of over 3.2 Million debit card details. Hackers were successful in breaking into a Payment Services system. The source of the hack is still unknown.
As per The Economic Times, hackers managed to inject malware into Hitachi Payment Services’ systems. They managed to steal 3.2 million debit cards’ details in India. It appears to be one of the biggest ever breaches of financial data, India has ever faced. The breach is believed to have taken place several weeks ago, compromising transactions that took place during this period.
It is still unknown who is behind the attack. However, a number of victims have reported unauthorized transactions made in various locations in China. The breach is being investigated by payment security specialist SISA, based in Bangalore, India. A forensic audit has been ordered by Payments Council of India on Indian bank servers and systems to detect the origin of frauds that might have hit customer accounts. The success in getting to the bottom of this breach will help in preventing such attacks in the future.
State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, YES Bank and Axis Bank have been hit the hardest by the breach. A total of 2.6 million stolen cards are said to be on the Visa and Master-Card platform and 600,000 on the RuPay platform.
Affected banks are already taking steps to block affected cards and replace them. SBI is in process of reissuing 600,000 debit cards following a malware-related security breach. Customers are advised customers to change their PINs regularly to prevent misuse following such incidents.’