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A cyber incident involving India’s largest lender, the State Bank of India (SBI), has led to the exposure of 3,897 customer records containing personal information on the dark web.
The bank disclosed the incident on October 21, saying its preliminary analysis had identified the records among a much larger collection of approximately 375,000 records found online.
The exposed information reportedly included customers’ names, mobile numbers, dates of birth, email addresses, residential addresses, branch details and customer identification numbers, along with metadata associated with loan and lead records.
SBI said it received alerts about the suspected data exposure on October 16 from its threat intelligence service provider, the Defence Cyber Agency and the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In).
Following the alerts, the bank activated its cyber incident response and containment procedures and appointed an independent cybersecurity agency accredited by CERT-In to investigate the incident and determine the nature and extent of the data exposure.
On Friday, October 23, SBI said it had individually notified all customers whose records were identified as being involved in the incident through email and/or WhatsApp.
The bank reassured customers that their account balances and funds remained safe.
It also said the incident had no material impact on its core business operations, financial performance or business continuity.
SBI advised customers to follow safe digital banking practices and never share their one-time passwords (OTPs), personal identification numbers (PINs) or passwords with anyone.
It also urged them to remain vigilant against suspicious phone calls, text messages and emails.
The investigation is ongoing, and the full extent and source of the suspected data exposure have yet to be established.
The incident has raised fresh concerns over cybersecurity and the protection of sensitive customer information in India’s banking sector.
