A major security lapse has once again highlighted the dangers of unsecured cloud servers. Thousands of Indian bank transfer records found spilling online after security lapse have exposed sensitive financial data, including account numbers, transaction details, and personal contact information of customers.
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Cybersecurity firm UpGuard discovered the breach in late August, when they found a publicly accessible Amazon-hosted storage server containing more than 273,000 PDF documents linked to Indian bank transfers.
What The Exposed Data Revealed
The leaked files included completed transaction forms processed through the National Automated Clearing House (NACH), a centralized system that handles high-volume recurring transactions such as salaries, utility bills, and loan repayments.
Researchers confirmed the exposed documents were connected to at least 38 banks and financial institutions in India, making the scale of the breach significant.
How The Leak Happened
While the spilling of Indian bank transfer records was eventually contained, researchers were initially unable to determine the exact source. Soon after, Indian fintech company Nupay admitted responsibility, stating the exposure stemmed from a “configuration gap” in an Amazon S3 storage bucket.
Nupay assured that the gap has since been fixed, but the incident raises serious questions about cloud storage security and financial data handling practices.
Banks And Institutions Impacted
From a sample of 55,000 leaked documents, UpGuard researchers found that:
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More than half mentioned Aye Finance, which filed for a $171 million IPO last year.
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The State Bank of India (SBI) appeared frequently among the records.
This suggests that both private and state-owned financial institutions were impacted, potentially affecting thousands of Indian customers across the country.
Exposing sensitive financial data doesn’t just risk identity theft—it undermines customer trust in the banking system. With thousands of Indian bank transfer records found spilling online after security lapse, the incident underscores the need for stricter cloud security protocols and compliance checks in India’s financial sector.
Human error continues to be one of the biggest causes of such data leaks. Even a minor misconfiguration, as seen in this case, can expose millions to fraud and cyberattacks.
This breach serves as a reminder that financial institutions and fintech companies must adopt stronger cloud security safeguards. For Indian banking customers, it’s also a wake-up call to remain vigilant about monitoring accounts for unusual activity.
As India continues its digital banking push, ensuring the safety of customer data must remain a top priority.
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