Standard Bank hit by data leak

Standard Bank has confirmed that it experienced a data breach that involved limited personal and financial information of a limited number of clients in South Africa.

This comes after News24 received a tip-off that a Standard Bank employee who had authorised access to specific client data copied some of this data to an unprotected personal device.

The bank said this was in violation of its strict information security protocols, and any divergence from this stated policy will be dealt with decisively in the interest of our clients.

The bank confirmed via a media statement sent to Daily Investor that the data copied includes limited personal and/or financial information of a limited number of clients in South Africa. 

The bank further clarified that it does not keep or store information like client passwords and Pins, and such information was not impacted by this data incident.

“In line with the Protection of Personal Information Act, the bank has communicated with impacted clients and has also notified the appropriate regulatory authorities,” it said. 

“If a client has not been contacted by the bank, they have not been impacted by this data incident.”

“While we are investigating the matter, we can confirm that no systems were compromised.”

Standard Bank said the investigation will inform the steps that will be taken against the implicated staff member guided by the bank’s internal disciplinary processes and regulatory requirements, including the Labour Relations Act and the Protection of Personal Information Act. 

The bank has initiated a disciplinary process against the implicated staff member.

“The protection of our clients’ information is of the utmost priority, and as part of our ongoing commitment to clients, we continuously enhance security protocols and monitoring,” it said. 

Standard Bank also apologised for any distress that this incident may have caused its clients.

This article was first published by Daily Investor and is reproduced with permission.