Parliamentary panel to probe security issues over debit card data breach

A parliamentary panel will examine various security issues related to payments in the banking sector and has asked government officials and representatives of some banks to appear before it. The panel has been constituted post concerns over the biggest-ever breach of debit card data.

As many as 32.14 lakh debit cards data was compromised and 641 customers across 19 banks were duped of Rs 1.3 crore using stolen debit card data.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance, which is scheduled to meet later this week, has asked officials from the Finance Ministry, the Corporate Affairs Ministry and various banks to appear before it.

The panel is headed by Congress MP Veerappa Moily. Representatives of State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Yes Bank have been asked to brief the panel on "security-related issues concerning payments in the banking sector", according to a Lok Sabha secretariat notice.

The notice said the panel will also be briefed by representatives of the Department of Financial Services from the Finance Ministry and the Corporate Affairs Ministry.

The suspected security breach happened through a malware in the systems of Hitachi Payments Services, which serves ATM networks.

There are around 60 crore debit cards operational in India, of which 19 crore are indigenously developed by RuPay while the rest are Visa- and Master Card-enabled.

Of the debit cards affected, about 26.5 lakh are on Visa and MasterCard platforms while 6,00,000 are on RuPay. The breach reportedly involved some 90 ATMs.

Several public and private sector banks recalled or blocked over 32 lakh debit cards to safeguard their customers from any financial fraud.

The Reserve Bank of India also initiated forensic audit to investigate the entire matter.

The RBI held a meeting also with senior officials from select banks, the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) and card network operators to review the steps taken by various agencies to contain the adverse fall-out of certain card details alleged to have been compromised.