Over 12,000 employees of the State Bank of India (SBI) had their personal information compromised in a significant data breach, which was later published on Telegram channels. Employees' names, residences, contact information, PAN numbers, and personal data from their SBI passbooks were among the information that was leaked.
The data breach was discovered after a file with the personal data of over 12,000 workers of the State Bank of India (SBI) was put to a Telegram channel with the handle @sbi_data on Friday, July 8. According to India Today, the file contained the names, residences, contact information, PAN numbers, account numbers, and photo IDs of the employees.
"Spread Chaos Comrades!" was penned in the channel's bio, and the file's name was "SBI Employee Data Dump." At the time of the leak, the channel only had 608 subscribers, but the file was quickly shared on social media and on other Telegram channels.
The threat actor who released the data of over 12,000 SBI employees also claimed to have access to millions of consumers' financial information. The threat actor also claims to have leaked the hacked material on public leak forums.
They additionally put out screenshots of SBI account balances and latest transactions on a leak site that is open to the public. Based on the screenshots, the threat actor has access to a wide range of financial data, including account numbers, PINs, and transaction histories. The compromised data was also made available for purchase on dark web platforms.
Rise in data breach incidents
In India, data breaches and leaks have drastically escalated in recent years. The CyberPeace Foundation said that over 1,250 data breaches occurred in India in 2022, an increase from 550 in 2021.
Popular messaging app Telegram has evolved into a hub for both illegal and legal communication in recent years.
Numerous high-profile examples involving the usage of Telegram by criminals have surfaced in recent years. TechCrunch revealed in January 2019 that SBI has exposed its customers' financial information via an unsecured server. Partial account numbers, balances, transaction information, and other sensitive data were among the leaked data.