Hackers are allegedly attempting to sell confidential information belonging to millions of Santander staff and customers, sparking concerns about data security. The bank, which employs 200,000 people globally, including 20,000 in the UK, has confirmed that data has indeed been stolen. Santander has issued an apology for the potential anxiety this may cause and is actively reaching out to affected customers and employees.
According to a statement from the bank, information from customers of Santander in Chile, Spain, and Uruguay, as well as current and former employees, has been compromised. However, the bank reassures that no transactional data or credentials enabling account transactions were part of the breach.
The group behind the alleged hack, known as ShinyHunters, claims to possess data such as bank account details for 30 million people, 6 million account numbers with balances, and 28 million credit card numbers, along with HR information for staff. While Santander has not verified the accuracy of these claims, concerns over data security remain high.
It has been reported that ShinyHunters previously sold data from US telecoms firm AT&T and is now offering private data allegedly obtained from Ticketmaster for sale. The Australian government and FBI are involved in addressing the Ticketmaster data breach.
Cybersecurity experts caution that ShinyHunters’ claims should be taken with scrutiny. Researchers suggest that the Santander breach and the Ticketmaster incident may be linked to a larger hack of a cloud storage company, Snowflake. Snowflake has acknowledged unauthorized access to a limited number of customer accounts, possibly resulting from stolen login details from a former employee’s demo account. Despite this, Snowflake asserts that no sensitive data was compromised.
The interconnectedness of these cyber threats underscores the ongoing challenges in safeguarding personal and corporate data. Security measures and protocols need to adapt swiftly to prevent such incidents from occurring in the future.
Vocabulary List:
- Confidential (adjective): Private or secretintended to be kept secret.
- Allegedly (adverb): Used to convey that something is claimed to be the case or have taken placealthough there is no proof.
- Spark (verb): To give off an electric current briefly or in small bursts.
- Credentials (noun): Evidence of authoritystatusor rights.
- Compromised (adjective): Exposed to risk or harmespecially by failure to maintain security.
- Reassures (verb): To say or do something to remove doubts or fears.
