London, United Kingdom – Hackers are currently attempting to sell what they claim is confidential information related to millions of staff and customers of Santander, a major global bank. The breach, affecting Santander locations in various countries including Chile, Spain, and Uruguay, has led to the theft of sensitive data.
The bank, with a workforce of 200,000 employees globally, has acknowledged the security breach and confirmed that customer information has been compromised. In response, Santander has issued an apology for the situation and assured affected individuals that they will be contacted directly. The stolen data reportedly includes personal information of current and former employees as well as customers in the mentioned countries.
According to a statement released earlier this month by Santander, no financial transactions or information that could enable unauthorized access to accounts were included in the breach. The bank also emphasized that their banking systems remain secure, allowing customers to continue conducting transactions without concern for their security.
In a concerning development, a group known as ShinyHunters has emerged on a hacking forum with claims of possessing extensive data from the security breach, including bank account details, credit card numbers, and HR information of Santander staff. However, Santander has not verified the accuracy of these claims made by ShinyHunters.
ShinyHunters has a history of selling stolen data from various high-profile companies, such as US telecoms firm AT&T and now Ticketmaster. The Australian government has expressed collaboration with Ticketmaster to address the situation, while the FBI has offered its assistance in the matter. Despite the claims made by ShinyHunters, experts advise caution in dealing with the validity of the information being sold.
Some experts speculate that the data being sold by ShinyHunters, particularly the information from Ticketmaster, could potentially be a tactic to garner attention for their hacking forum. This theory comes after the group faced a police crackdown and subsequently relaunched their operations.