State Bank of India (SBI) has blocked the 6 lakh debit cards following a security breach. This has occurred in a non-SBI ATM network, and they will be replaced with new ones according to the reports. The bank has sent e-mails and SMS to the customers about the blocking and asked them to apply for new cards.

The breach has happened due to malware that can capture sensitive information and enable financial frauds. Customers who have used their cards at only SBI ATM branches have not been affected. Without informing the customers, the cards have been blocked.

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SBI’s chief technology officer (CTO), Kumar Bhasin, said “A few ATMs have been affected by malware. When people use their card on infected switches or ATMs, there is a high probability that their data will be compromised.” He further added, “It’s a security breach, but not in our banks’ systems. Many other banks also have this breach — right now and for a long time.”

Currently, it is not compulsory for the banks to report the issues of a security breach to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). As per the reports around 5 lakh cards out of 20crore cards issued by the SBI has been blocked.

To avoid significant losses like this, the bank officials are advised the customers to take precautionary measures by periodically changing the debit card Person Identification Number (PIN) or password. Usually, banks ask the customers to change the password or PINs for every month or at least 3 to 4 months for the security purposes.

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Banks also reminds the customers not to share their respective PIN number with anyone to avoid such security breaches. Scanning and copying of cards lead to data theft and thus leading to many transactions.

The Reserve Bank of India has notified all the banks to implement chip-based EMV cards which have multiple layers of security. With these chip-based cards, if the wrong PIN is entered, the information will not be validated by the bank servers.