Data from 3.2 million debit cards in India have been compromised. As one of the biggest emerging country in Asia, India is also seen as having one of the biggest breach in financial data.
Out of the cards, 2.6 million of them are said to be Visa and Master Card, 600,000 of them are RuPay's. The worst hit came from banks like State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, YES Bank and Axis Bank, the people said.
While the criminal isn't known at the moment of the breach, victims reported unauthorized transactions made in various locations in China. To compromise the data, hackers used malware that they injected into the banks' Hitachi Payment Services' system. This enabled them to steal information, to then allowing them to steal funds.
Some banks, including the country's biggest lender SBI, have announced that they'll replace compromised debit cards, while others banks, including HDFC Bank, urges their customers to change their ATM PINs and avoid using ATMs of other banks.
Having one of the biggest breach in bank security, sources have said that the malware infection took about six weeks before being detected. During that time, the act for compromising data and transaction took place. All of those 3.2 million cards were used on the Hitachi network.
The damage the hack has done depends on the type of cards the customers are using. Magnetic stripe cards are easier to clone whereas EMV chip-equipped cards are more secure and more difficult to clone.
