Mumbai: BKC police registered an FIR on Aug 28 against an unidentified person after the email account of a nationalised bank credit manager (loan department) was allegedly hacked and confidential data from several branches from across the country was stolen. The bank approached police after an internal inquiry. No arrest has been made, and police are using an internet protocol address to trace the sender and determine how the system was breached. No arrest has been made so far and the BKC police cyber team have sought details to track the internet protocol (IP) address to locate the person who is involved in the offence.The warning email, received by chief information security officer KR Ajaykumar on July 9, claimed that a group called Triple X had hacked the bank’s networks and downloaded more than one terabyte of data. It threatened to publish the data unless the bank responded within days. “The compromised data included account holders’ re-KYC forms, mobile-number change forms and a gold loan agreement. The hackers claimed to possess the bank’s trade secrets, personal data and financial records,” said a police officer of the BKC police station.The message was sent using the email account of Lalbahadur Khandwar, a credit manager at Mahilay branch in Gujarat, and copied to several senior officials and other bank employees. “Deputy general manager Nilesh Shah, based in Hyderabad, contacted Khandwar, who denied sending the message. No sent emails were visible in his account. Khandwar informed branch manager Sunil Kumar and colleague Saurabh Sen, changed his password and alerted senior officials. Bank management subsequently blocked his email account,” said Ajaykumar in the FIR.Police said the bank had not received any ransom call. It was retrieving the data and had consulted cybersecurity experts to diagnose and resolve the breach. “The message read: Triple X team hacked your networks. All of your network data (over 1 terabyte) has been downloaded and some pictures have been attached for you. All your data will soon be placed on our website and leaked. To prevent this, you need to contact us within the next few days. You will see the true scale of the catastrophe. This will confirm that your trade secrets, personal data, and financial records are already in our possession,” said a police officer.
