State Bank of India (SBI) on Friday said it had individually informed all customers whose personal information was identified in a suspected data breach, reassuring them that their account balances and funds remained safe. It also advised the customers to follow safety digital banking practices and remain vigilant against suspicious calls, messages, and emails.

The bank said the affected customers were notified through email and/or WhatsApp following the identification of 3,897 customer records containing personally identifiable information (PII) on the dark web.

Also read: Jio IPO makes history, crosses 10 Million applications for first time in India

In a preliminary analysis of around 3.75 lakh records found online, SBI identified the records containing customers’ personal information, including names, mobile numbers, dates of birth, email IDs and residential addresses, along with customer identifiers and loan-related details.

The bank had received alerts about the suspected exposure on October 16 from its threat intelligence service provider, the Defence Cyber Agency and the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In).

SBI has engaged an independent cybersecurity agency empanelled by CERT-In to investigate the nature, source and extent of the suspected data exposure. The bank had earlier said the incident had no material impact on its core business operations, financial performance or business continuity.