The bank confirmed that, last month, the information of customers and former employees of the bank based in Chile, Spain and Uruguay was stolen.
However, data for all other Santander customers and employees elsewhere has not been breached.
The bank apologised for “the concern this will understandably cause” customers and is in touch with affected customers and employees in the countries affected.
For customers worried about the breach, Santander has provided five points to reassure their potential fears.
Advice to Santander customers:
- Santander will never ask you for codes, OTPs or passwords.
- Always verify the information you receive and contact us through official bank channels.
- If you receive any suspicious message, email or SMS, report it to your bank directly or by contacting reportphishing@gruposantander.com.
- Never access your online banking via links from suspicious emails or unsolicited emails.
- Never ignore security notifications or alerts from Santander related to your accounts.
‘We immediately implemented measures’
Santander said in a statement: “We recently became aware of an unauthorised access to a Santander database hosted by a third-party provider.
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“We immediately implemented measures to contain the incident, including blocking the compromised access to the database and establishing additional fraud prevention controls to protect affected customers.”
It also noted that the affected database had “no transactional data, nor any credentials, that would allow transactions to take place on account.”
This means no online banking details and passwords were at the mercy of hackers during the attack.
As the bank’s operations and systems are unaffected, customers “can continue to transact securely”, Santander added. The banking group has also notified regulators and the police of the incident.
Meanwhile, hackers have since put the stolen data up for sale over the weekend, according to the BBC. A group called ‘ShinyHunters’ has reportedly put the account details of 30 million people up for grabs on a hacking forum.
YourMoney.com contacted Santander for comment on the data-selling reports, but we have not yet received a response.
