In a bid to pacify around 3.2 million debit card users affected by India’s greatest banking security breach, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has assured strict action against those responsible for the violation as he urged the victims that there is no cause for alarm.
The finance minister has asked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to submit a report on the data theft that compromised about 26.5 lakh debit card users on Visa and MasterCard platforms and 6,00,000 users on RuPay.
“The government asked RBI as well as banks to provide details of the data breach and also preparedness to deal with cyber crimes. I have sought a report in the debit card issue. The idea is to contain the damage,” Jaitley said.
As per the data provided by the National Payments Corporation of India, as many as 641 customers across 19 banks have been duped of Rs 1.3 crore using stolen debit card data.
Pacifying debit card users against the cyber crime, Department of Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das said, “A report has been sought on all aspects. There is no cause for alarm, the integrity of IT system of banks is robust and whatever action is required, the government will take promptly”.
Das, who is from Department of Economic Affairs, further explained that, “the government is seized of the matter and reports have been called from RBI and banks to know what exactly has happened”.
A preliminary input “sort of report” has already come in and the government is awaiting further details from the final report. After getting the report, necessary action will be taken by the government, added Das.
While Visa and MasterCard, in separate statements, have said that their own networks had not been compromised, Hitachi subsidiary Hitachi Payment Services, which manages some of the ATM network processing, was investigating the matter, including whether there was a malware problem.
