C-Edge Technologies has been attacked by ransomware, causing service disruptions for over 300 small Indian banks. Neither the RBI nor C-Edge Technologies has issued a statement yet.
Customers of approximately 300 small lenders across the country have been unable to access payment services such as ATM withdrawals or UPI transactions due to a ransomware attack on the technology service provider, C-Edge Technologies.
“Only around 0.5% of the nation’s payment system volumes would be affected,” said one source, referring to the impact on the smaller banks involved.
The disruption has affected cooperative and regional rural banks that rely on C-Edge, a joint venture between SBI and TCS. However, other banking services continue to operate normally.
The issues have persisted for the past two days following the discovery of a breach at C-Edge. To safeguard the broader payment system, precautions including isolating C-Edge’s system have been implemented.
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) stated in a late evening update that C-Edge Technologies has likely suffered a ransomware attack affecting some of its systems. As a result, C-Edge has been temporarily removed from accessing NPCI’s retail payment systems.
Restoration efforts are underway in collaboration with C-Edge Technologies, and a comprehensive security review is in progress.
India has approximately 1,500 cooperative and regional banks, which primarily operate in areas outside major cities. These are some of the banks that have been impacted, according to the sources.
The NPCI is performing an audit to ensure the attack does not spread further, the second source reported.
In recent weeks, the RBI and Indian cyber authorities have alerted banks about potential cyber attacks, as indicated by banking industry sources.
