Bank Of Baroda Data Leak: Reports of the biggest ever cyber attack and data leak in the Indian banking sector are coming out. Around 1 TB of highly sensitive data has been leaked from the servers of Bank of Baroda (BoB), the country’s leading public sector bank, and uploaded online, it has been claimed. The incident has shaken the banking world and raised serious questions about the security of customers.

Documents leaked on the dark web

According to a report, a hacker has shared several important documents related to the data breach online. The cyber disaster was first exposed on July 25 by dark web tracking website ransomware.live. The hacker has claimed to have stolen 1 TB of data from the bank’s servers and made it public, though the incident has not yet been officially confirmed by Bank of Baroda.

Data verification and interpretation by software engineer Srikanth Laxman

Srikanth Laxman, founder of Cashless Consumer and a software engineer, shared a screenshot on Instagram and termed the incident as a horrific cyber disaster. According to Lakshmanan’s claim, he verified a portion of the leaked files, which were found to include the bank’s branch audit reports, loan appraisal documents, internal communications, vigilance inspection records, Bobworld audit reports and customer application forms from branches across the country.

What types of sensitive information could be compromised?

If this leaked data proves to be true, it could put millions of bank customers at greater risk of phishing attacks, identity theft and financial fraud. The leaked information includes customer names, mobile numbers, personal identification documents, savings and current account records, loan information, netbanking user records, NRI and corporate banking records and important records related to branches and ATMs.

Password and OTP claim to be secure

The only relief is that amid this massive data breach, no evidence has yet surfaced that customers’ passwords, ATM PINs, UPI PINs or OTPs have been leaked. However, as the details and identification documents linked to the personal identity of customers become public, cybercriminals can use them to create fake loan applications, forge KYC documents and prepare fraud calls.

Suspicion casts doubt on a new cybercrime group called Triplex

No official or anonymous hacking group has yet publicly claimed responsibility for this data leak. But cyber expert Srikanth Laxman believes that this sophisticated cyber attack may have been carried out by a relatively new and active cyber crime group called ‘Triplex’. An intensive investigation into the matter has been initiated by the banking system and more revelations are likely to emerge in the coming days.