Over three million Debit cards of Indian banks are found to be tainted due to a security breach and it has caused a huge panic among the buyers in this Pre-Diwali season.
Around 30,00,000 Debit Card users of both public and private banks are estimated to be vulnerable due to this data breach. State Bank of India and many other banks have started blocking the debit cards of their customers and are issuing new ones for free.
Currently, SBI has blocked around 6,00,000 Debit cards and the bank has also stated that the breach was found in non SBI ATM Network. The move was initiated to ensure that no confidential personal data is compromised while swiping the card for various transactions, as the amount of average spending of an Indian in Diwali season is way more when compared to other scenarios.
Mastercard’s officials have said that their system have not been breached till now and they are investigating to evaluate the whole situation with the help of Third Party Payment Networks and local Law Enforcement Agencies.
Officials have advised the customers to check their transactions and statements regularly and if they find any doubtful activity, they should immediately inform the related bank about the activity.
20 October 2016
Rohan Jaitly