C-Edge Technologies Ltd., a technology service provider to co-operative and regional rural banks was “possibly” hit by a ransomware attack, according to a statement by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) on July 31. The Mumbai-based technology provider caters mostly to co-operative and regional rural banks, NPCI added in the statement.
NPCI temporarily closed all retail payments in the affected banks and customers of will not be able to access the payment systems until restoration is complete. Only small RRBs and co-operative banks are affected, said an official at NPCI who spoke to The Hindu on condition of anonymity. “The problem will be contained hopefully by tomorrow” he added. The Reserve Bank of India did not respond immediately to a request for a comment.
Confirming the development and fall out for customers of several cooperative and regional rural bank, an official of a State Bank of India sponsored regional rural banks (RRB) said the issue was reported to authorities on July 29.
“Majorly UPI operations have been affected. Cash arrangements we don’t see any problem... only for NPCI services majorly UPI, AePS (Aadhaar-enabled payment system) is having impact,” the official said, requesting anonymity.
The system is likely to be restored by tomorrow, he said, estimating almost 200 cooperative banks and RRBs across India who are with the service provider to have impacted.
Some RRBs depending on their sponsor banks are having different tech service providers. Hence, there is a possibility that some RRBs in a region will continue to function as usual.
He said for impacted entities NPCI has temporarily isolated payment services offered by the service provider.
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