Sberbank to cancel deal with collection agency over data leak

MOSCOW, Oct 24 (PRIME) -- Russian top lender Sberbank will terminate a contract with collection agency National Recovery Service after detention of its employee on suspicion of theft of the bank’s clients’ data, a spokesperson for the bank told reporters on Thursday.

The Interior Ministry said that an employee of National Recovery Service was detained on suspicion of personal client data from several banks, including Sberbank.

“The criminal acts were committed by an employee of National Recovery Service, which was determined by law enforcement agencies with support of Sberbank’s security service. As we said earlier, there were no leaks of personal data of customers from Sberbank and our subsidiaries,” the spokesperson said.

“In connection with the violation of the terms of the contract and the loss of confidence, Sberbank will terminate the contract with National Recovery Service as soon as possible and will conduct an audit of the personal data protection systems of troubled borrowers used by collection agencies – contractors of Sberbank,” the bank said.

Kommersant business daily reported earlier on Thursday citing sources that a seller on an illegal Internet resource claims to possess private data of the clients of Sberbank, which might be a second data leak from the bank since September, while the bank denied a leak of data.

On October 3, Sberbank admitted a leak of personal data of at least 200 customers after media reports. Sellers said that they owned data on 60 million credit cards, both valid and closed. An employee of the bank was later detained, and confessed.

A year ago over 420,000 entries with names of employees and their logins to enter the operational system leaked from Sberbank.

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