In one of the biggest card replacements in Indian banking, State Bank of India (SBI) recently said that it will re-issue around six lakh debit cards to customers, which have been blocked following a malware-related security breach in a non-SBI ATM network.

“It’s a security breach, but not in our bank’s system. Many other banks also have this breach — right now and since a long time,” Shiv Kumar Bhasin, SBI’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO) said, adding that customers who used their cards only at SBIrun ATMs have not been affected by this. “A few ATMs have been affected by a malware. When people use their card on infected switches or ATMs, there is a high probability that their data will be compromised,” Bhasin said.

Several customers of the bank have found their ATM cards to be blocked. SBI has informed branches about the cards being blocked and fresh cards would be issued to customers. “Customers need not panic. They can either approach their branch, call up phone banking or use the Internet for ‘re-carding’. They can also set their PINs from their homes using Internet banking,” Bhasin said.