Indian banking and retail companies are in the crosshairs of cyber criminals, with two separate cases raising fresh concern about the safety of companies and ordinary customers.
On one side, a hacking group has claimed it breached AU Small Finance Bank and threatened to leak sensitive customer information and internal company data.
On the other side, electronics retailer Vijay Sales is allegedly facing a security breach, with super administrator access and lakhs of records said to be on offer on the dark web.
What hackers claim about AU Small Finance Bank
A group calling itself ScarlettGroup has claimed it hacked AU Small Finance Bank, according to a post by Hackmanac, and threatened to leak the data.
The hackers claim they accessed highly sensitive customer documents, including KYC records, identity proofs, credit reports, bank statements, loan applications and signed agreements.
They also claim to have accessed internal bank data such as employee information, login history, insurance records and audit logs.
These are claims made by the hacking group, and they have not been independently verified.
What AU Small Finance Bank has said
AU Small Finance Bank has told the tech team that it is investigating a leak linked to its data security.
The bank said the matter relates to a software-as-a-service platform managed and hosted by Salesforce, where some data related to customers who took vehicle loans is present.
The bank has not confirmed the wider claims made by the hacking group about customer documents and internal systems.
Vijay Sales access allegedly on sale
In the Vijay Sales case, a post by Dark Web Informer says a handle named shinymontanna is offering the retailer's super administrator access on the dark web for about 25,000 dollars, or around 21 lakh rupees.
The seller claims to hold more than 30 lakh order records, information on 15,000 employees and billing records of nearly 1.4 lakh vendors.
The claimed administrator access is said to include not just customer information but also payment history, bank transfer records, inventory and financial reports.
The hackers also claim they can make changes inside these systems, and they have posted screenshots of an admin dashboard as supposed proof.
Why this matters for ordinary customers
These attacks matter far beyond the companies involved, because leaked personal documents, contact details and financial information can be misused.
Cyber criminals can use such data to commit fraud, take fake loans in someone else's name or carry out banking fraud.
Customers of banks and large retailers should therefore watch for unusual messages, calls or transactions and report anything suspicious to their bank immediately.
Companies, too, face a hard lesson here: customer trust depends on keeping this kind of data locked down, not just on selling products and services.
