SBI assures customers their balances funds remain safe:Bank sends private messages to cyber attack affected bank a/c holders

The State Bank of India (SBI) has individually notified customers whose data was identified as being involved in a recent cyber incident through email or WhatsApp, while reassuring account holders that their balances and funds remain safe, as per a statement issued by the PSU lender on Friday. The clarification comes after the public sector lender identified more than 3,000 customer records containing personally identifiable information (PII) during a preliminary assessment of data suspected to have surfaced on the dark web, prompting a detailed investigation. Further to our earlier post regarding the recent cyber incident, the Bank has individually informed all customers, whose data was identified as being involved, through email and/or WhatsApp. We reiterate that your account balances and funds are safe with us. -SBI The lender further advised customers to follow safe digital banking practices, refrain from sharing their OTPs, PINs or passwords with anyone, and remain vigilant against suspicious calls, messages and emails. SBI had earlier informed stock exchanges about the cyber incident involving customer data exposure on the dark web. Out of approximately 3,75,000 checked records, 3,897 contained personal customer information. The bank confirmed that its core operations remain completely unaffected. The SBI filed an official regulatory disclosure with the BSE and National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) under SEBI guidelines. The bank informed the market that it experienced an incident involving the loss of certain customer data. SBI received alerts on October 16, 2026, from CERT-In, the Defence Cyber Agency, and its Threat Intelligence Service Provider. These alerts pointed to a suspected leak of customer records on the dark web. 3,897 customer records identified with personal information After receiving the alert, SBI carried out a preliminary check of around 375,000 records available on the dark web. The bank identified 3,897 customer records containing Personally Identifiable Information (PII). The exposed details included customer names, registered mobile numbers, dates of birth, gender, email addresses, and home addresses. Identifiers like branch codes, Customer Information File (CIF) numbers, lead IDs, and loan metadata files were also exposed.