Stay tuned with CashEssentials news ! - beyond payments
By subscribing, you accept our Privacy Policy.
×
×

Massive Card Breach could undermine India’s Cashless Quest

Categories : Cash is trust
October 25, 2016
Tags : Asia, ATM, Cash substitution, Fraud, Security
A massive card breach has compromised over three million debit cards and could well undermine India's fight against cash.
Guillaume Lepecq

Several major Indian banks have been hit by a massive card breach which may impact up to 3.2 million cards. Banks have either recalled cards or invited customers to change PINs. The National Payments Corporation of India indicated an investigation was looking into the cause of the breach. It suspects cards were compromised by as many as 90 ATMs which were infected with malware.

The attack comes at a time when India had been pushing hard to reduce cash usage. In May, the Prime Minister urged his countrymen to adopt non-cash payments in order to reduce tax evasion and corruption. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently launched the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which uses a national identification number and one’s mobile number to make payments. Moreover, Google and Visa have also been lobbying hard to push digital payments by calling for the government to incentivise the use of non-cash instruments.

Bloomberg reports that this breach is a major setback for India’s fight against cash. “Rather than the actual impact of the breach it is the noise, confusion and fear of the unknown which is fueling the panic,” said Naveen Surya, chairman, Payment Council of India.“Given that most Indians are in the villages and not tech savvy, there will be lot of apprehension regarding usage of digital money and cards after this breach,” said VVSSB Shankar, founder of i-lend, India’s first peer-to-peer lender.

Related