HDFC Bank's data leak, SBI customer records found on dark web

Two large banks in India have accepted the leakage of data. State Bank of India has identified 3,897 customer records containing personal information in a set of about 375,000 records available on the dark web, and it does not yet know where the data came from. The state-owned bank, India's largest, said in a stock-exchange filing dated October 21 that it "has experienced an incident involving the loss of certain data." The count is preliminary, and the bank has yet to establish whether the data is authentic, how far the exposure goes and what risk it poses to customers.
The exposed information "reportedly included customers' registered mobile numbers, dates of birth, names, gender, email addresses, residential addresses, branch and CIF identifiers, lead IDs, and metadata associated with loan/lead records and other related files," in the filing's words. A CIF identifier is the customer information file number, the bank's internal ID for each customer. The bank has not said whether the 3,897 records belong to 3,897 different people, or what the rest of the set contains. The 3,897 are roughly 1 in 100 of the records it examined.
The alert reached the bank on October 16 via its threat intelligence provider, CERT-In, India's national computer emergency response team, and the Defense Cyber Agency, the armed forces' cyber agency under the Ministry of Defense.The bank activated its incident response and containment procedures and engaged an independent cybersecurity firm from CERT-In's panel of approved security auditors to assess what the filing calls "the alleged compromise." The incident has no material impact on the bank's core business operations, financial performance or business continuity, the filing says. That covers the bank's business, not its customers.
HDFC also found evidence that two senior executives disclosed confidential business strategies and possible market-sensitive information to outsiders, according to people familiar with the matter. The executives oversee certain key businesses and functions at the bank, according to the people, who asked not to be named discussing confidential matters.HDFC identified the executives during an internal investigation that began after some leaders grew concerned about the possibility of information being leaked, the people said. The probe is still underway as the bank continues to examine whether the information was misused, the people said.
HDFC Bank spokesperson acknowledged an internal review, but didn't comment on its findings or the executives involved. "In line with our policies, an internal review into this matter is currently underway to gather and evaluate all relevant facts," the spokesperson said by email. "Appropriate action will be taken based on the findings, once the review is complete."