New Delhi [India], October 22 (ANI): Rajya Sabha MP A.A. Rahim has written to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, calling for an independent investigation into the exposure of State Bank of India (SBI) customer data on the dark web and urging immediate measures to protect affected customers from potential financial fraud.
In his letter, Rahim urged the Ministry of Finance to ensure a comprehensive investigation to establish how the data became accessible, determine the full extent of the exposure and identify whether additional sensitive records were affected.
He also called on SBI to directly notify affected customers, establish accessible channels for reporting suspected fraud and provide appropriate assistance to those at risk.
Rahim warned that the exposure of personal information could increase the risk of identity theft, targeted phishing, impersonation and financial fraud.
He expressed concern over the potential impact on pensioners, workers, small traders and other vulnerable sections of society who rely on public sector banks to safeguard their personal and financial information.
The MP said the absence of disruption to banking services did not diminish the seriousness of the potential compromise of customer information.
He said, “I urge the Ministry of Finance to ensure a comprehensive and independent investigation into the incident, with clear timelines for identifying the source and extent of the suspected breach. SBI should take immediate steps to directly notify all affected customers”.
The letter comes after SBI disclosed that its preliminary analysis had identified 3,897 customer records containing personally identifiable information (PII) among approximately 3,75,000 records examined on the dark web.
The bank, in its official statement, said it received alerts on October 16 from its threat intelligence service provider, the Defence Cyber Agency and the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) regarding the suspected exposure.
The information reportedly included customers' names, registered mobile numbers, dates of birth, gender, email addresses and residential addresses, along with branch details, Customer Information File (CIF) identifiers, lead IDs and metadata associated with loan and lead records.
The bank said it had activated its cyber incident response and containment protocols and engaged an independent cybersecurity agency empanelled by CERT-In to conduct a comprehensive assessment.
Rahim has also urged the Finance Ministry to review cybersecurity safeguards across public sector banks, strengthen real-time threat detection and data-access controls, and ensure accountability wherever negligence or security lapses are established.
He further called for the investigation's findings and corrective measures to be communicated transparently.
Rahim is a member of the Rajya Sabha, the Standing Committee on Housing and Urban Affairs, and the Consultative Committee of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. (ANI)
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