A ransomware attack on July 31, 2024, has led to a significant disruption in services for nearly 300 small Indian banks. The attack targeted C-Edge Technologies, a technology firm providing support to these banks. C-Edge Technologies is a joint venture between the State Bank of India (SBI) and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).
The outage has severely impacted users, preventing them from withdrawing money from ATMs and using Unified Payments Interface (UPI) services. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which oversees UPI transactions, responded by temporarily disconnecting C-Edge from the retail payment systems as a precautionary measure.
NPCI confirmed that C-Edge Technologies had been “possibly impacted” by the ransomware attack, which affected several of their systems. Efforts are underway to restore banking services quickly, with authorities working on an urgent basis. A third-party audit is also being conducted in the wake of the attack.
Reports suggest that services may be back online by August 1, 2024, provided the restoration efforts proceed as planned. The NPCI noted that while the affected banks are primarily smaller institutions, their combined impact represents only about 0.5 percent of the nation’s payment system volumes.
Dileep Sanghani, chairman of the National Cooperative Union of India and the Amreli District Central Cooperative Bank, indicated that the issues began two to three days ago. He reported that all online transactions, including RTGS and UPI payments, have been disrupted. In many cases, money has been deducted from senders’ accounts but has not been credited to receivers’ accounts.
The situation remains critical as efforts continue to resolve the disruption and prevent further impact on the banking sector.
