Indian banks reported 248 data breaches in last four years, says government

India’s banks reported 248 successful data breaches by hackers and miscreants between June 2018 and March 2022, the government informed Parliament on August 2.

Most of these data breaches pertain to card details leakage and theft of business and non-business information, Union Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Karad told Parliament.

Of the total 248 data successful data breaches, 41 were reported by public sector banks, private sector banks reported 205 data attacks while foreign banks faced two, the minister said.

Replying to a question on data security in banking and insurance sectors, Karad said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has informed the Centre that it has issued guidelines on Cyber Security Framework for Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs), whereby banks are required to implement cybersecurity and IT (information technology) controls, among other things, for prevention of data leakage from its systems.

“Banks have also been directed to strengthen IT risk governance framework which mandates active role by their Chief Information Security Officer besides an active involvement of the Board / IT committee of the Board in ensuring compliance with the required standards,” Karad said.

In case of violation, the RBI can bring the matter to the notice of the bank concerned, including the management of the bank for initiating corrective measures within definite timelines. Further, the RBI can also advise management and bank board to examine and initiate actions against erring staff and senior officers, as required in a given time frame.

Further, enforcement action can also be taken in the form of imposition of monetary penalty for violation of norms.

Data breaches in India have cost industries and enterprises an average of Rs 17.6 crore FY22, said a report by IBM.

The Ministry of Home Affairs on July 19 told Parliament that there have been 674,021 cyber security incidents as of June 2022.

Minister of State in Home Affairs Ajay Kumar Mishra while responding to a question in the Lok Sabha, said that there have been over 3.94 lakh cyber security incidents in 2019, 1.15 lakh in 2020, and 1.40 lakh in 2021.