Banco Santander customer data gets compromised in a breach

Banco Santander announced that a threat actor had accessed a database maintained by one of its service providers. The malicious incident resulted in a data breach that affected its customers, endangering their digital presence.

This affected entity is one of the world’s largest and most prominent banks, with establishments in multiple countries, such as Spain, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Mexico, and the United States. Moreover, this bank offers a comprehensive range of financial goods and services and currently serves more than 140 million customers.

However, earlier this week, the bank confirmed in a statement that the data breach attack on its service provider has impacted its clients and staff in Spain, Chile, and Uruguay. Based on the statement, the bank stated that they know about the recent unauthorised Santander database in one of their third-party service providers.

 

Banco Santander reinforced its cybersecurity defences to prevent similar attacks that could worsen its current situation.

 

Banco Santander stated that they immediately tried to limit the situation and prevent unauthorised access to the information. They allegedly installed extra fraud prevention systems to protect vulnerable consumers and avoid further compromise.

However, their initial investigation confirmed that some details regarding their clients in Chile, Spain, and Uruguay are part of the compromised information. In addition, the bank confirmed that the data breach has also accessed the data of its former and current employees.

The bank has not yet provided any additional information on the details of the exposed data but assured everyone that transaction information and online banking account passwords were not included in the affected dataset. This financial institution also stated that the incident did not affect any of its other markets.

Furthermore, the bank’s systems and operations in the earlier-mentioned nations are unaffected. Hence, clients can continue to use all services freely without concerns.

On the other hand, the bank will contact customers and employees immediately affected by the data breach and seek law enforcement agencies’ assistance to address the issue.

Banco Santander refuses to name the affected third-party service provider, the number of affected clients, and the type of exposed data. Therefore, customers and employees within the countries allegedly compromised by the attack should be cautious with their digital presence, as the data breach operators could use the impacted data to conduct other illicit activities, such as phishing campaigns.