Here's Why 32 Lakh Debit Cards Are Being Replaced After India's Biggest Banking Hack

Owners of almost 3.2 million debit cards have been asked to change their security codes, after one of India¡¯s biggest financial data breaches came to light. Banks are receiving reports of unauthorised usage from China.

Which cards were hacked?

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2.6 million: Visa and Master-Card

600,000: RuPay

State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, YES Bank and Axis Bank were hit the hardest.

How the hack was carried out

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Malware was added to the systems of Hitachi Payment Services, enabling fraudsters to steal information, which in turn gave them access to funds. Hitachi provides ATMs and point of sale (PoS) hardware and software.

The Payments Council of India has ordered a A forensic audit on Indian bank servers and systems detect the origin of the frauds. NPCI Managing Director AP Hota told the Economic Times: "We have received complaints from banks about debit cards being used in China which aroused suspicion."

"Though most of the suspected fraudulent transactions happened in the Visa and MasterCard network, we thought a whole a forensic audit of the entire network will help us find out where the compromise happened," he said. According to sources, the hack took almost 6 weeks to detect, creating a window of opportunity for hackers to make sizeable transactions.

Also read: 4 Dudes Tried To Steal A State Bank ATM, Managed To Steal The Passbook Machine Instead!