Santander Breached: 30 million customers and staffs hacked

The Cyberattack

Hackers recently targeted Santander Bank, claiming to have stolen confidential information belonging to millions of the bank’s staff and customers. This same group allegedly hacked Ticketmaster earlier this week.

Santander’s Response

Santander, a global banking giant with 200,000 employees worldwide, including 20,000 in the UK, confirmed some data was compromised. The bank issued an apology for the distress this breach might cause, assuring that they are contacting affected customers and employees directly. They emphasized that UK customer data was not affected by the hack.

Details of the Breach

BlogTech report that In a statement released earlier this month, Santander detailed the breach involved customer information from Santander Chile, Spain, and Uruguay, as well as data from all current and some former employees of the group. The bank reassured that no transactional data or credentials necessary for account transactions, including online banking details and passwords, were compromised. Their banking systems remain secure, allowing customers to continue their transactions safely.

The Hackers’ Claims

Researchers at Dark Web Informer first noticed a post by the hacking group, ShinyHunters, on a hacking forum. The post advertised the sale of the stolen data, claiming it included:

Bank account details of 30 million people
6 million account numbers and balances
28 million credit card numbers
HR information for staff

Santander has not verified the accuracy of these claims.

Previous Activities of ShinyHunters

ShinyHunters has a history of selling stolen data, including information from the US telecoms firm AT&T. They are also currently selling what they claim to be a vast amount of private data from Ticketmaster. The Australian government is collaborating with Ticketmaster to resolve this issue, and the FBI has also offered its assistance.

Expert Opinions

Some experts suggest that ShinyHunters’ claims should be approached with caution, as they may be a publicity stunt. However, cybersecurity firm Hudson Rock links the Santander and Ticketmaster breaches to a significant ongoing hack involving a large cloud storage company, Snowflake. According to Hudson Rock, the perpetrators of the alleged Snowflake hack gained access by stealing login details from a Snowflake employee.

Snowflake’s Statement

In response, Snowflake acknowledged “potentially unauthorized access” to a “limited number” of customer accounts. They explained that the hackers accessed a demo account owned by a former employee. The company assured that this account did not contain sensitive data and stated, “We have no evidence suggesting this activity was caused by any vulnerability, misconfiguration, or breach of Snowflake’s product.”

Conclusion

This incident underscores the increasing threat of cyberattacks and the importance of robust security measures to protect sensitive information. Both businesses and individuals must remain vigilant and proactive in safeguarding their data against such threats.

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