Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 22 (SocialNews.XYZ) CPI-M Rajya Sabha member A.A. Rahim on Thursday has sought the intervention of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for an independent investigation into the reported exposure of State Bank of India (SBI) customer data on the dark web, raising concerns over the safety of personal information held by the country's largest public sector bank.
Rahim urged the Finance Ministry to establish the source and extent of the suspected data breach, ensure that affected customers are directly informed and strengthen cybersecurity safeguards across public sector banks.
The intervention comes amid reports that the SBI had identified 3,897 customer records containing personally identifiable information among data circulating on the dark web.
The bank reportedly received alerts about the suspected exposure on October 16 from its threat intelligence service provider, the Defence Cyber Agency and the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In).
An independent cyber security agency has been engaged to investigate the incident.
The information reportedly exposed includes customers' names, registered mobile numbers, dates of birth, email and residential addresses, branch details, Customer Information File (CIF) identifiers, and metadata associated with loan and lead records.
Rahim warned that such information falling into unauthorised hands could expose ordinary customers to identity theft, targeted phishing, impersonation, and financial fraud.
Pensioners, workers, small traders, and other vulnerable sections could be particularly at risk, he said.
The CPI-M MP argued that the absence of any disruption to banking services did not diminish the seriousness of the suspected compromise of personal information.
The SBI has maintained that the incident has not materially affected its core operations or business continuity.
Rahim called for clear timelines for the investigation and urged the bank to establish accessible channels for customers to report suspected fraud and obtain assistance.
He also sought transparent disclosure of the investigation's findings and the corrective measures taken.
Extending the issue beyond the SBI, Rahim asked the Finance Ministry to review cyber security safeguards across all public sector banks, strengthen real-time threat detection and data-access controls, and fix accountability wherever negligence or security lapses are established.
The letter places the spotlight on the responsibility of public sector banks to protect customers' personal information even when their core banking systems continue to function normally.
The full extent and source of the suspected exposure remain under investigation.
Source: IANS
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